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| Genesis BBQ's headquarters in Seoul / Newsis |
By Kim Jae-heun
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| Genesis BBQ Chairman Yoon Hong-geun |
Genesis BBQ Chairman Yoon Hong-geun has been indicted on charges of breach of trust as he allegedly funneled company money to an entity wholly owned by him and his family members, according to prosecutors Thursday.
The Suwon District Prosecutors' Office said it indicted Yoon for violating the Special Economic Crimes Weighted Punishment Act on Jan. 16.
The chairman is accused of causing damage to Genesis BBQ by lending billions of won to GNS Hinet, one of his private companies which is not related to BBQ, between 2013 and 2016. The fried chicken franchise firm did not recoup the loan.
GNS Hinet was established in July 2013 by Yoon's family with a 100 percent stake. It is neither a subsidiary nor affiliate of BBQ. The company was later sold off after facing complete negative equity.
The indictment started with competitor bhc's report to the police in April 2021 that Yoon had allegedly lent about 8.3 billion won ($6.8 million) to his private firm through BBQ, which is unrelated to GNS Hinet.
The police investigated the case for a year dropping it last July. However, bhc appealed against the result and filed an objection resulting in the prosecution putting Yoon back on trial.
"This is an unreasonable indictment with no actual victim, no money loss and no societal damage. Bhc has purposely made this up to hurt its business rival BBQ," a BBQ official said. "The police had already closed this case as it saw it as an incident that happened while BBQ was promoting a new business."
The company also said it believes Yoon will be found innocent through future legal proceedings like he was last time when bhc reported him in 2018.
"We know the bhc report was behind Yoon's alleged embezzlement case in 2018, which turned out to be false. Like last time, bhc is only attempting to hurt BBQ's business and degrade the company's reputation for its own good," the official said.
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