Yoo may face homicide charges

Ko Chang-hwan, CEO of Semo Group’s major affiliate Semo, answers reporters’ questions as he leaves Incheon District Court after a hearing about an arrest warrant the prosecution is seeking against him, Friday. / Yonhap

Yoo Byung-eun

By Kim Da-ye

The prosecution is considering negligent homicide charges against former Semo Group Chairman Yoo Byung-eun as it secured evidence to prove his involvement in management of the operator of the sunken ferry Sewol.

The prosecution is also weighing the right time to summon Yoo.

Among the evidence seized during a raid was an organization chart updated April 15, a day before the tragedy took place, according to the prosecution. It shows Yoo as the chairman of Chonghaejin Marine, the operator of the Sewol.

Another document, emergency contacts written in 2011, also lists Yoo as the chairman. Yoo was given an employee identification number, “A9901,” according to the prosecution.

Yoo denied in a statement on April 25 that he influenced the firm’s management. He claimed that he has been devoted only to photography in the last several years.

The prosecution, however, found he collected some 15 million won every month from Chonghaejin on the pretext of advisory fees.

Widening the investigation into Yoo and his family, investigators Friday raided six places linked to them, including the office of Moreal Design in southern Seoul. Yoo’s eldest daughter, Yoo Seom-na, heads the design firm, which has done design work for many of Semo’s affiliates.

The prosecution summoned Seom-na, but she didn’t respond.

Investigators also searched Gookje Yeongsang in Yongsan, Seoul. The media company is considered a key affiliate of Semo Group because Yoo Byung-eun held a 28.8-percent stake in the unit until 2009. He gave up his shares in other affiliates of Semo after it went bankrupt in 1997.

Jeon Yang-ja, a 72-year-old actress, is the president of the media company as well as an organic food grocery store. Jeon is expected to be summoned today.

The prosecution requested Thursday that the court issue warrants to apprehend Yoo’s second son, Hyuk-kee, Kim Hye-gyung, president of Hankook Pharmaceutical, and Kim Pil-bae, a former I-One-I Holdings CEO.

They are staying abroad, not responding to the prosecution’s summons. Prosecutors are cooperating with foreign law enforcement agencies to bring them to Korea.

In the meantime, the government-led search operation recovered two bodies Wednesday night on the fourth deck and two more ― both female ― from the crewmember-only cabin on the fifth deck of the ferry Sewol.

The death toll increased to 173 while the number of missing dropped to 31.

The bodies are yet to be identified, but one of the two found on the fifth deck is assumed to be a passenger because only one female crewmember is missing. The discovery suggests that desperate passengers may have climbed to the fifth deck to be rescued, observers said.