Convicted S. Korean Executive Implicates Former President
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SEOUL — A convicted industrialist told a parliamentary hearing Thursday that he gave former President Kim Young Sam $12.5 million in illegal campaign funds in 1992.
The testimony by Chung Tae-soo, 76, former owner of bankrupt Hanbo Steel Industries Co., contradicted a repeated claim by the former president that he never received any money from Chung or other businessmen.
Chung’s steel firm, the nation’s second-largest with an annual production capacity of 3 million tons, collapsed in early 1997 under the weight of $6 billion in debt, most of it in bank loans.
Chung was convicted of embezzling $213 million in company funds and sentenced to 15 years in prison. His case is now before the Supreme Court.
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