Former Chairman Park Sam-gu of Kumho Asiana Group / Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] The decision on whether to detain former Kumho Asiana Group Chairman Park Sam-gu, who is suspected of 'unfair support to affiliates,' will be made on the 12th.
According to the legal community, at 10:30 a.m. on the same day, a detention hearing (warrant substantive examination) for former Chairman Park will be held under the presiding judge Lee Se-chang at the Seoul Central District Court.
Earlier, former Chairman Park was reported to the prosecution by the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) on charges of unfairly supporting Kumho Express (formerly Kumho Holdings), which has a high ownership stake by the group head, through affiliates such as Asiana Airlines. In August last year, the FTC found that Kumho Asiana Group unfairly supported Kumho Express through affiliates including Asiana Airlines, issuing corrective orders and imposing a fine of 32 billion KRW.
In particular, the FTC judged that Asiana Airlines transferred the exclusive in-flight meal business rights to an overseas company in exchange for that company subscribing to Kumho Express’s bonds with warrants (BW). Additionally, nine affiliates including Kumho Industrial were found to have lent funds to Kumho Express at low interest rates. The FTC interpreted that through the affiliates’ support, Kumho Express gained approximately 16.9 billion KRW in interest rate arbitrage, and the group head family, including former Chairman Park, profited tens of billions of KRW.
During this process, the investigation team conducted a search and seizure of Kumho Asiana Group headquarters and Asiana Airlines offices in November last year, securing accounting books and electronic data. Subsequently, former executive director Yoon of Kumho Asiana Group’s Strategic Management Office and FTC employee Song were indicted on charges of exchanging money and deleting data unfavorable to Kumho.
Former Chairman Park was summoned to the prosecution as a suspect on the 15th of last month and was interrogated for about nine hours. The prosecution is known to have requested a detention warrant, judging the case to be serious and fearing evidence destruction.
Meanwhile, as the prosecution reviewed the detention warrant request, former Chairman Park’s side asked external experts to assess the appropriateness of the investigation and requested the convening of the Prosecution Investigation Deliberation Committee, but it was not accepted. The committee, which is convened by the prosecution citizen committees of each local prosecution office to decide whether to refer cases, saw the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office Citizen Committee decide on the 7th not to refer former Chairman Park’s case.
The decision on former Chairman Park’s detention is expected to be made late in the afternoon on the same day.
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