By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Prosecutors Wednesday sought a one-year prison term with a two-year stay of execution for Daewoo Group founder Kim Woo-choong on charges of hiding his fortune to avoid forfeiture.
They also demanded a fine of seven million won from his former secretary for hiding documents.
In June, prosecutors estimated his wealth at tens of billions of won, reserved in the form of shares with Best Ltd Co., previously Daewoo Development.
Experts expressed surprise over the prosecutors' demand for a suspended prison term. ``We considered that Kim regretted hiding his money. He also donated all 7.7 million shares of Best, and this helped recoup minor shareholders' losses,'' a prosecutor said.
His defense attorney also pleaded for leniency, saying Kim has been behind bars for false accounting and his hiding of his wealth was related to a crime for which he had already been punished.
Investigators found stocks and 134 artworks worth more than 100 billion won that Kim had hidden. The finding came in a probe into Cho Poong-eon, a Korean-American military weapons dealer who allegedly bribed government officials in 1998 to help prevent Daewoo from going bankrupt and protect Kim from prison.
In 2006, Kim was sentenced to eight years and six months in prison and 10 million won in fines. He was also ordered to forfeit 17.9 billion won but claimed he did not have the money.