Suwon District Court Sets First Trial Date for 30th at 11 AM
Police Decide Not to Prosecute Chairman Yoon After One Year of Investigation
The criminal trial addressing embezzlement charges against Yoon Hong-geun, chairman of Genesis BBQ Group, is set to begin within this month. As this is the first time Chairman Yoon will personally appear in court during the decade-long legal battle with competitor bhc, the chicken industry’s attention is focused on the case.
According to the legal community on the 21st, the Criminal Division 1 of the Suwon District Court Seongnam Branch (Chief Judge Kang Dong-won) will hold the first hearing on the morning of the 30th at 11 a.m. to examine Yoon’s charges of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes (embezzlement).
Since the defendant is required to attend the formal trial date, Chairman Yoon must appear in court in person as the defendant on that day. However, it is generally possible to request a schedule change up to one day before the trial date, and if the defendant is absent on the day of the trial, the court will set a new date.
Yoon has appointed lawyers from the law firms Yulchon, HwaWoo, and Sian, and through them has requested an order to change the trial date. The trial date may be changed depending on the court’s decision.
Yoon is accused of causing damage to the company by having Genesis, the holding company of BBQ, lend several hundred million won of company funds to his personal company J from 2013 to 2016 and failing to recover a significant amount. J is a company established in July 2013 with 100% investment from Yoon’s family and is not an affiliate of Genesis or BBQ. Later, J was sold due to capital erosion and other reasons.
The investigation into former Chairman Yoon began when competitor bhc filed a complaint with the Seongnam Sujeong Police Station in April 2021, alleging that Yoon caused damage by lending approximately 8.3 billion won of company funds to a personal company unrelated to BBQ.
After about a year of investigation, the police decided not to prosecute in July last year, but bhc appealed this decision in August of the same year. The prosecution, having taken over the case, reinforced the investigation and judged that there was embezzlement by Chairman Yoon, leading to his indictment.
Genesis BBQ Group has responded by stating, "This is an excessive prosecution case with no actual victim, no damage amount, and no social harm, arising from a competitor’s slanderous complaint," and added, "It will be proven innocent through legal procedures going forward."
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