Kim Woo-choong

HANOI (Yonhap News) ― Kim Woo-choong, the former chief of South Korea’s now-defunct Daewoo Group, returned home on Monday to deal with growing criticism in his country over his unpaid fines totaling 18 trillion won ($16.6 billion), business sources in Vietnam said.

Daewoo Group filed for bankruptcy in 1999 in the wake of the Asian financial crisis that hit South Korea in late 1997.

After years of hiding overseas, he returned to South Korea in 2005 and was promptly put under arrest. Kim was charged with accounting fraud of 41 trillion won, illegally borrowing 9.8 trillion won and smuggling $3.2 billion out of the country. He was later pardoned by then-President Lee Myung-bak in January 2008.
 
Since the pardon, Kim has been staying in Vietnam.

To this day, the former Daewoo chief owes the state an uncollected restitution of 17.9 trillion won. Of the total, Kim has only paid 88.7 billion won, less than 0.5 percent.

The sources said during a stay in Seoul, Kim may announce his stance over his unpaid fines and alleged hidden assets held by his family.

Early this year, an online news outlet claimed that a son of the Daewoo Group founder has been found to be the owner of a luxury golf course in Vietnam, accusing the disgraced businessman of siphoning off funds instead of paying the restitutions he owes the state.

Kim’s expected moves come after the family of disgraced former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan pledged last week to pay off a huge amount of unpaid fines.

In 1997, South Korea’s top court convicted the former president of mutiny, treason and bribery, and ordered him to return to state coffers around 220 billion won he illegally received in bribes during his iron-fisted rule. Chun has yet to pay some 167.2 billion won he owes. Chun seized power through a coup in 1979 and ruled until 1988.

Two weeks earlier, another ex-president, Roh Tae-woo, paid off the remainder of his unpaid fines amounting to 23 billion won. Roh was also convicted of the same charges as former president Chun in 1997.

Roh, who replaced Chun as president from 1988 to 1993, was ordered by South Korea’s top court to pay back 262.8 billion won that he was found to have illegally accumulated during his presidency.