By Yun Suh-young
Lawyers for Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn filed an appeal to a higher court Tuesday against his sentence of four years in prison and a 5.1 billion won fine for embezzlement and breach of trust last week.
The group said during a press conference that the sentence should be reconsidered because “only 20 percent of the embezzlement charges were found to be true and therefore the remaining 80 percent were false.”
“What was stated as embezzlement was an inevitable decision made by the company during its restructuring process. And this is a matter that is dealt with by the finance team, not the chairman,” the company said.
“Not a single penny went into Chairman Kim’s pocket and none of the employees spent the money on themselves.”
The Seoul Western District Court found Kim guilty of the charges and immediately imprisoned him last Thursday.
The decision was groundbreaking because the previous norm for the judiciary was to sentence heads of conglomerates to suspended jail terms, as was the case for seven of the nation’s 10 richest people who usually got away with paying fines as donations to charities.
The court ruled against Kim saying that he caused huge damage to the company by supporting a fake subsidiary and handing over its stock to his sister. He was also charged with evading tax under a borrowed-name bank account.
The group said although it respected the lower court’s decision it believed there were parts that needed re-evaluation.
Meanwhile, on concerns raised about the management of the company, the firm denied that the imprisonment of its chairman will have any effect on its operations.
“Our group has built an autonomous business management system since 2000 and the system is in effective operation. We will make sure no problems arise in our business due to the incident,” the group said.
“We don’t believe the imprisonment will last long. Chairman Kim will become free when our reasons are fully reflected in the appeals court.”