SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won, who is currently serving a four-year jail term for embezzling, has been excluded from a special pardon expected early next month, the justice ministry said Sunday.
The 55-year-old Chey is not on the list of offenders to be evaluated for parole set for March 1 to mark the country’s Independence Movement Day, according to ministry officials.
The South Korean government often grants pardons to imprisoned business executives, politicians and other convicts on significant occasions. Conglomerate heads, in particular, are released on grounds that they need to normalize their company businesses and help revive the country’s economy.
Leading business organizations have publicly urged the government to release Chey and other CEOs.
SK Group’s vice chairman and Chey’s younger brother, Jae-won, and Koo Bon-sang, vice chair of LIG Nex1, were also passed over from the special pardon, according to ministry officials. This is the second time this year that the three tycoons are exempted from getting their jail terms cut short. They were not considered for the pardon at the start of the new year.
Their omission coincides with roiling public sentiment against the country’s conglomerates that has become unsympathetic after the “nut rage” incident in which an heiress of local carrier Korean Air Lines Co. was charged with jeopardizing flight safety over a pack of nuts that were not served to her liking.
Earlier in December, former Korean Air vice president Cho Hyun-ah had ordered a senior crew member off a plane that had already begun taxiing with 250 passengers on board for serving her in-flight snack in an unopened packet instead of on a plate. Cho now faces a year in prison.
SK Group’s chairman Chey was previously convicted of embezzling 46.5 billion won ($42.3 million) from two SK Group affiliates and funneling the funds into personal investments in 2008. He has been serving a four-year term since January 2013.
The younger Chey was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for conspiring with his older brother in the embezzlement.
Vice Chairman Koo of the South Korean defense company was sentenced to a four-year prison term last year for illegally issuing commercial papers worth about 215 billion won.
(Yonhap)
