The 700 million won worth of French real estate owned by Yoo Hyuk-gi (51), the second son of former Semo Group chairman Yoo Byung-eun (deceased in 2014), who is on trial for embezzlement amounting to 25 billion won, has been frozen.
On the 20th, the Crime Proceeds Recovery Team of the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office announced that they recently froze Yoo's French real estate, as he is undergoing a first trial on charges of embezzlement under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes.
The freezing measure is a judicial act that restricts the suspect or defendant from freely disposing of assets obtained through criminal proceeds. The prosecution judged that Yoo embezzled 550,000 euros (about 770 million won) from affiliate company funds to purchase the property.
Earlier, following the Sewol ferry disaster in 2014, the prosecution investigated management corruption by identifying the Yoo family as the actual controlling shareholders of the shipping company Cheonghaejin Marine. During this process, they confirmed signs that some criminal proceeds were transferred to France. Yoo, the second son of former chairman Yoo, stayed overseas continuously after the Sewol ferry disaster and was forcibly repatriated to Korea in August last year.
From June 2017 to February 2022, through criminal judicial cooperation with France, the prosecution confirmed that Yoo purchased French real estate with criminal proceeds. Subsequently, the Korean court decided on seizure preservation of Yoo's French property in September 2022, and the French court also issued a freezing order in June of the following year.
As Yoo withdrew his appeal locally in France in February this year, the freezing measure on the property was finalized. The prosecution explained that this is the first case where a foreign real estate acquired with criminal proceeds was frozen by the French court based on a seizure preservation order from a Korean court.
A prosecution official stated, "At the end of last month, we received notification from French authorities that the freezing measure on Yoo's property was completed in February," adding, "We plan to consider measures to confiscate Yoo's French real estate to the national treasury."
Yoo was arrested and indicted on charges of colluding with affiliate company representatives close to his father from March 2008 to March 2014 to embezzle a total of 25.49 billion won under the pretexts of photo fees and trademark royalties, diverting the money to personal accounts or overseas corporations.
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