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| Park Sam-koo, former chairperson of Kumho Asiana Group, arrives at the Seoul Central District Court in southern Seoul, Wednesday, to attend his sentencing hearing. Yonhap |
Park Sam-koo, former chairperson of Kumho Asiana Group, was sentenced to 10 years in prison Wednesday for embezzlement of company funds, breach of trust and fair trade law violations.
The Seoul Central District Court made the ruling and ordered the immediate detention of Park after finding him guilty of his criminal charges.
The 77-year-old Park resigned as chairperson of Kumho Asiana Group and its affiliate Asiana Airlines in 2019 to take responsibility for controversial bookkeeping for the nation's No. 2 carrier.
He was arrested and indicted in May last year on the multiple criminal charges but was released on bail in November.
Park is accused of masterminding unfair inter-affiliate transactions in violation of the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act to rebuild the group and regain control of group companies.
Park was indicted for withdrawing 330 billion won ($252 million) from four affiliates in 2015 to pay for the return of Kumho Industrial shares from the state-funded Korea Development Bank and other creditors.
Park was also charged with inflicting losses on Asiana by leading the airline company to undersell 100 percent of its shares in Kumho Terminal to Kumho Buslines, unfairly mobilizing nine group companies to offer unsecured low-interest loans of 130.6 billion won to Kumho Buslines controlled by his family and underselling an exclusive in-flight meal provision contract to Swiss company Gategroup.
Prosecutors earlier demanded a 10-year prison sentence for Park in the previous court hearing. (Yonhap)
