Business tycoons given Liberation Day special pardons

The government granted special presidential pardons to scores of business tycoons Monday on the occasion of this week’s Liberation Day anniversary, including Park Chan-koo, honorary chairman of Kumho Petrochemical Group.

A total of 2,176 people were given special pardons that will legally take effect at the beginning of Tuesday, the Liberation Day anniversary that commemorates the end of Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, according to officials.

These are the third presidential pardons since President Yoon Suk Yeol took office in May last year.

Among the beneficiaries are scores of big-name businesspeople, including Park; Lee Joong-keun, founder of Booyoung Group; and Chong Kun Dang Chairman Rhee Jang-han.

Lee and Park were given a prison term and a suspended prison term, respectively, both on charges of breach of duty, while Rhee was sentenced to prison on charges of bullying his driver.

As part of the sentences, Lee and Park were banned from running their businesses for five years, but the special pardons will reinstate some of their rights and allow them to resume business activities.

Among those given pardons were also Shin Young-ja, a daughter of Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho and former head of Lotte’s scholarship foundation; former Chairman of apparel giant Taekwang Group Lee Ho-jin; and former Chairman of Dong-A Socio Holdings Kang Jeong-seok.

Shin was given a suspended jail term in 2019 in connection with a massive corruption scandal involving retail giant Lotte while the former Taekwang chairman served a three-year prison term for embezzlement and corporate tax evasion. Kang spent 2 1/2 years in prison for embezzling corporate funds and providing kickbacks to hospitals.

“I hope these special pardons can help reinvigorate the overall economy so as to be able to overcome the economic crisis, resolve social and political conflicts and reach national harmony,” Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon said in a briefing.

Former Gangseo Ward office chief Kim Tae-woo was also given a pardon and had his right to run in official elections reinstated. He was given a suspended prison term on charges of leaking official secrets and ousted from office.

Kim, formerly an investigator affiliated with the prosecution, was charged with revealing to the media official secrets he gleaned while working for a special inspection team under the chief presidential secretary for civil affairs from December 2018 to February 2019.

Former Finance Minister Kang Man-soo was another ex-government official given a special pardon after he was sentenced to a jail term in 2018 on charges of abusing his official power. He was released in 2021 on parole.

The rest of Monday’s pardon beneficiaries also include those convicted of minor pandemic prevention rule violations, small- and medium-size business owners punished due to financial issues stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic and those of advanced age or convicted of crimes attributable to economic difficulties, officials said.