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GM Korea to take legal action on its CEO's exit ban

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By Kim Jae-heun
  • Published KST
  • Updated KST

By Kim Jae-heun

GM Korea CEO Kaher Kazem

General Motors (GM) and GM Korea announced plans to file an administrative litigation against the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office for banning its CEO Kaher Kazem from leaving the country again on April 30.

“It is an arbitrary administrative disposition that could be an abuse of legal procedures and it must be reconsidered and withdrawn in order to respect the court's decision,” GM Korea said in an official statement.

The carmaker's local branch added it will issue a proceeding to the Seoul Administrative Court to nullify the prosecutor's exit ban on Kazem.

Kazem has been under investigation on charges of illegal hiring since the end of 2019. The CEO and the company's four executives were indicted for sending 1,700 workers from 24 subcontractors here between September 2017 and December 2019.

The local law bans carmakers from dispatching people from outside to work at their main production lines. The workers were said to have worked at GM's factory for automotive body assembly and painting.

Kazem was already given an exit ban once before and the justice ministry extended the term in July to facilitate the investigation. The CEO appealed to the higher court and the Seoul Administrative Court ruled in favor of GM Korea's American chief last month.

However, the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office placed a travel ban on Kazem again a week after the court's ruling.

“The abuse of judicial power by the justice ministry and the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office undermines faith of international companies on the fairness of the Korean justice system. It is also a waste of government agencies' resources to repeat existing litigation procedures,” Korea GM said.

The carmaker's local branch added an exit ban is not necessary as Kazem has no intention to flee. The CEO has left Korea for a business trip to the United States when he was granted a stay for the extended exit ban last month. He returned to Seoul several days later.