12-Year Jail Sentence Upheld for JU Group Owner

An appeals court here on Thursday upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced the head of South Korea's largest multilevel marketing company to 12 years in jail for fraud and embezzlement.

Ju Soo-do, chairman of JU Group, was convicted of misappropriating 28.4 billion won ($30 million) from company coffers and luring about 2 trillion won in investment funds with a fraudulent promise of high returns.

The Seoul High Court acknowledged that the 51-year-old chairman duped the company's approximately 110,000 multi-level marketers knowing that the business was no longer profitable.

Founded in 1999, the JU Group posted about 2 trillion won in sales in 2004, becoming the nation's No. 1 multilevel marketing company, with Amway Korea in second place.