Hanbo Chief, 9 Others Get Jail Time

TOKYO — Reflecting public outrage at a corruption scandal that has besmirched the top reaches of South Korean society, a Seoul district court today meted out stiff jail terms to the former chairman of the Hanbo conglomerate, a former Cabinet member and eight other business people and politicians.

“Your wrongdoing has caused a great shock to the Korean people, harm to the country’s economy and chaos in society,” Chief Judge Son Ji Yol told Chung Tae Soo, the 74-year-old founder and patriarch of the Hanbo Group.

Prosecutors had sought a 20-year term for Chung, who has now been convicted twice of bribery and who has been nicknamed “Mr. Lock” by the South Korean media for his closemouthed refusal to name those to whom he had given his trademark apple crates stuffed with cash.

Instead, the ailing tycoon, who suffered a stroke after his arrest and did not look well in court, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. His son, Chung Bo Keun, the current Hanbo Group chairman, was sentenced to three years.

The Chungs and the others sentenced today are expected to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Hanbo Steel, a subsidiary of the Hanbo Group, which was South Korea’s 14th-largest conglomerate, collapsed in January with debts of $5.6 billion. The court heard evidence that the elder Chung had made millions of dollars in payoffs to bankers and senior lawmakers of the ruling and opposition parties in exchange for loans to the overextended steel firm.

Prosecutors tracked the trail of corruption to President Kim Young Sam’s closest aides, and last month arrested the president’s son, Kim Hyon Chol.

Opposition leaders have alleged that the elder Chung was a major donor to President Kim’s 1992 election campaign, together with disgraced former President Roh Tae Woo. But Kim refused to reveal his campaign donors, saying in a speech Friday that it would be impossible to sort out the financial details five years after the election.

Outraged by Kim’s speech, students in Seoul have been rioting for the past three days, demanding that the president resign. In the worst violence in almost a year, more than 10,000 students rampaged on Saturday, throwing rocks and gasoline bombs and using steel pipes to do battle with riot police firing tear gas.

The clashes reportedly were continuing this morning near Korea University and Hanyang University, although downtown Seoul was calm.

With the street violence as a backdrop, Judge Son told the bankers and politicians brought before him that “our society should use this opportunity to break from a past, where morality and reasoning were lacking, and move toward a better economy and society.”

In addition to the Chungs, eight people were given prison sentences and an eleventh defendant was given a suspended sentence.

A former Cabinet member, ex-Home Affairs Minister Kim Woo Suk, was jailed for four years. Hong In Gil, a lawmaker from the president’s New Korea Party, was given seven years and fined the equivalent of $1.12 million, the amount the court found he had accepted in bribes. Two other New Korea Party lawmakers drew three-year terms and fines.

Kwon Roh Kap of the opposition National Congress for New Politics was sentenced to five years and fined.

Three former presidents of Korea First Bank and Chohung Bank, all of whom were convicted of accepting bribes in exchange for loans to Hanbo Steel, were handed four- and five-year terms. And Hanbo’s former controller was given a two-year jail sentence suspended for four years.

Initial public reaction indicated that South Koreans still do not believe that prosecutors have probed enough into corruption.

“If the prosecutors end the Hanbo investigation with today’s sentencing, the next administration will have to reinvestigate the case, because we still don’t know who pressured the banks to loan [to Hanbo] and why,” said Kang Yong Soo, 38, a financial worker.

Chi Jung Nam of The Times’ Seoul Bureau contributed to this report.