SPC expresses regret over prosecutors' move to detain ailing chairman

Hur Young-in, the chairman of SPC Group, leaves the Seoul Central District Court, Feb. 2, after being acquitted on charges of ordering the dumping of affiliate shares to evade gift taxes. Joint Press Corps

SPC Group expressed regret over prosecutors' moves to detain its ailing chairman Hur Young-in, saying that investigators are intensifying their investigation, without sufficient evidence, into the allegations that he illegally coerced company employees to leave an umbrella labor union, according to officials at the country's largest bakery chain, Thursday.

The officials said the chairman has been fully cooperating with the investigation and will continue to do so in the future.

Late Wednesday, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office asked the Seoul Central District Court to issue an arrest warrant for Hur and the court is expected to soon decide whether to allow the investigators to detain him or not.

On Tuesday, he was arrested by investigators after defying a prosecution summons over the allegations that he, between 2019 and 2022, forced bakers at SPC subsidiary PB Partners to withdraw their memberships from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, one of the country's biggest militant labor umbrella unions.

SPC Group, operating major food and beverage brands here, including Paris Baguette, Shake Shack, Samlip and Caffe Pascucci, said it is "deeply upset" about the prosecutor's arrest warrant request and that Hur had reasons for having missed the authority's repeated summons for questioning. It said Hur had to take care of important business duties and had been hospitalized due to cardiac dysrhythmia and a panic disorder.

"Chairman Hur wanted to faithfully comply with the prosecutors' summons but his ill health temporarily halted him from doing so," the company said in a statement. "He had no intention to avoid the investigation."

It said Hur was recently acquitted following prosecutors' "unjust" indictment and regrets that the same predicament has fallen on the group again, especially when the chairman was undertaking a critical step for SPC's global market expansion efforts.

Hur, on March 24, met Caffe Pascucci CEO Mario Pascucci in Seoul and reached a bilateral agreement to expand SPC's food and restaurant brands to Italy with the support of the Italian coffee franchise chief.

"Prosecutors first summoned Hur on March 13 and we, because of his business appointments, requested to delay the summons by a week. They rejected it without any solid reason," the statement said. "Hur tried to comply with the subsequent summons on March 25 but he couldn't because of his medical condition."

SPC also said the prosecutors refused to allow Hur to plead fully on his part and reserve his right to self-defense, adding that illegality in the chairman's allegation for violating the country's Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act has "not been proven enough for them to enforce the investigation in such an inadvertent way."

Before being arrested on Tuesday, Hur declined to appear on March 18, 19 and 21, citing his medical conditions. He eventually showed up for questioning on March 25 but left just one hour later in the middle of the session as he complained of chest pain.