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Probe unearths ‘hidden assets’ of Daewoo founder

South Korean prosecutors said yesterday they had discovered hidden assets of the founder of the Daewoo group, which collapsed in 1999 in one of the world’s largest corporate failures.

They said Kim Woo-choong had used borrowed names to conceal shares in local firms, but declined to confirm a media report that the hidden assets were valued at 144 billion won (US$140 million).

Prosecutors have tried to track Kim’s hidden assets since he was convicted in 2005 of embezzlement and accounting fraud after returning from six years of exile overseas.

In November 2006 an appeal court upheld Kim’s convictions and sentenced him to eight and a half years in prison. He was also ordered to forfeit 17.9 trillion won and pay 10 million won in fines.

The following month the jail sentence was suspended on grounds of ill health. Kim, 71, was pardoned in December in a presidential amnesty.

“Prosecutors have discovered Kim’s hidden assets including paintings and shares,” Supreme Prosecutors Office spokesman Oh Se-in said.

“We are taking legal steps to confiscate his assets. The exact value of his hidden assets is not known,” he said.

The JoongAng Daily said the assets seized totaled 144.6 billion won. Among them, it said, were paintings worth 780 million won that were seized from an art gallery run by Kim’s wife.

Kim was found guilty of masterminding an accounting fraud involving 20 trillion won and obtaining 9.8 trillion won in illegal loans from banks, as well as smuggling funds overseas.
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