Lee Guk-cheol, CEO of the mid-sized shipbuilding company SLS Shipbuilding, filed a complaint on the 21st at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, accusing national policy financial institutions Korea Development Bank and Korea Trade Insurance Corporation's former presidents of "conspiring in advance to deliberately bankrupt SLS Shipbuilding and cause the outflow of national assets worth 20 trillion won."
On the same day, Lee announced that he filed a complaint with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office against 13 suspects related to the outflow of national assets, including former Korea Development Bank President Min Yu-seong and former Korea Trade Insurance Corporation President Yoo Chang-moo, on charges of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes (breach of trust).
On the morning of the 21st, at a restaurant in Seocho-gu, Seoul, Lee Guk-cheol, CEO of SLS Shipbuilding, and his legal representative, Attorney Jeong Gang-chan of the law firm Purme, held a press conference to file a complaint alleging the deliberate bankruptcy conspiracy and the outflow of national wealth abroad by officials from the Korea Development Bank and the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation during the 2009 restructuring of SLS Shipbuilding.
The accused include former President Min and six bank officials, former President Yoo and two Korea Trade Insurance Corporation officials, one certified public accountant each from Deloitte Anjin Accounting Corporation and Samil Accounting Corporation, and three company officials including former SLS Shipbuilding CEO Mr. C.
According to Lee, former President Min and others conspired in advance to bankrupt the company under the pretext of corporate restructuring from 2009, constructing only 30 out of 77 ships ordered and built worldwide by SLS Shipbuilding, and notifying the cancellation of the remaining 47 ships to overseas shipowners, causing the company a loss of 1.4 trillion won due to a 7% additional interest on the 47 ships.
In the complaint, Lee claimed that at the time, the financially sound company SLS Shipbuilding was illegally and forcibly made to abandon the construction of 47 ordered ships, resulting in foreign shipping companies gaining profits exceeding 1 trillion won.
In particular, during this process, Korea Development Bank and Korea Trade Insurance Corporation mobilized a board of directors composed of unauthorized directors in April 2010 to strip Lee of his major shareholder status and representative authority; after more than ten years of litigation, Lee won and regained these rights in 2022, according to Lee's side.
Lee stated, "I urge a thorough investigation to uncover the criminal charges regarding national policy institutions, operated with taxpayers' money, conspiring in advance to bankrupt a thriving mid-sized shipbuilding company and causing the outflow of national assets worth 20 trillion won?a blatant fraud against the public."
Lee plans to file a massive damages lawsuit once the illegal charges against them are fully revealed through this investigation and trial.
Meanwhile, as of 2009, just before entering workout, SLS Group was a mid-sized company with assets of 2.4 trillion won and sales of 1.1 trillion won, consisting of 10 affiliates including SLS Shipbuilding and SP Marine, with SLS Heavy Industries, which manufactures railway vehicles and ship equipment, as the parent company. At that time, the number of employees reached about 5,000.
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