An arrest warrant has been issued for Hyuk-gi Yoo (50), the second son of Yoo Byung-eun, former chairman of the Semo Group (deceased in 2014), who was forcibly repatriated from the United States to South Korea nine years after the Sewol ferry disaster.
Yoo Hyuk-ki, the second son of former Saemogroup chairman Yoo Byung-eun, is arriving in South Korea through Incheon International Airport on the morning of the 4th, nine years after the Sewol ferry disaster. [Image source=Yonhap News]
According to the legal community on the 5th, the Criminal Division 6 of Incheon District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Son Sang-wook) announced that on the morning of the 4th, they arrested Yoo on charges of embezzlement under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes and requested an arrest warrant. Yoo's pre-arrest suspect interrogation (warrant hearing) will be held at 2 p.m. on the same day at the Incheon District Court.
Yoo is accused of conspiring with representatives of affiliated companies close to his father to embezzle a total of 25 billion KRW under the pretext of consulting fees and other charges, transferring the money to personal accounts or overseas corporations. Among this amount is also the money he received as advance payment for photographs from various affiliates to fund AHAE PRESS INC., a U.S. company that produced photographic works of his father.
Initially, the prosecution announced an estimated crime amount of 55.9 billion KRW related to Yoo based on interim investigation results of the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster, but under the extradition treaty between South Korea and the United States, the amount was reduced to 29 billion KRW. Article 15 (Principle of Specificity) of this treaty stipulates that a criminal shall not be punished in the requesting country for crimes other than those for which extradition is permitted. To prosecute additional crimes, consent from U.S. authorities is required.
Subsequently, the prosecution recalculated the embezzlement amount based on the trial rulings of Yoo’s accomplices and specified the amount of 25 billion KRW in the arrest warrant.
Earlier, the special investigation team of the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office identified the Yoo family, former chairman Yoo’s family, as the actual controlling shareholders of the shipping company Cheonghaejin Marine immediately after the Sewol ferry disaster and conducted a large-scale investigation into management corruption. At that time, the prosecution judged Yoo as the de facto successor in management following his father, former chairman Yoo. When Yoo, a U.S. permanent resident, did not return to Korea, the Korean side requested extradition from the U.S., and he was forcibly repatriated nine years after the Sewol ferry disaster.
Yoo is the last of the four fugitives who fled abroad in connection with the Sewol ferry incident to be repatriated to South Korea.
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