South Korea on Tuesday announced a sweeping amnesty for convicted business tycoons including the Hyundai Motor boss, citing a need to reinvigorate the economy. The aim is "to help strengthen national unity and provide momentum for business leaders and all the people to make joint efforts to reinvigorate the economy and create new jobs," the presidential Blue House said in a statement.
The pardons granted by President Lee Myung-Bak include 74 leading business people. Among them are Hyundai Motor chairman Chung Mong-Koo, SK group chairman Chey Tae-Won and Hanwha group chairman Kim Seung-Youn. Presidents have traditionally granted amnesties to celebrate Liberation Day marking the end of Japanese colonial rule over Korea on August 15, 1945.
Critics say the pardons show that the nation is not serious about cleaning up its corporate culture. Most of the convicted businessmen on the list are already free after receiving suspended jail terms. Chung Mong-Koo was convicted last year of raising a slush fund to bribe government officials and others. An appeal court in June upheld a suspended three-year jail sentence on him.
Hanwha's Kim was jailed for kidnapping and beating up bar employees after his son sustained injuries in a bar brawl. His sentence was suspended last September. Chey of SK Group received a suspended sentence for irregular business practices, including illicit stock dealing and book-keeping irregularities involving 1.5 trillion won (now 1.07 billion dollars).
Former Samsung group chairman Lee Kun-Hee was not included because he is still on trial. He has appealed against a suspended prison sentence imposed in July for tax evasion after he quit the nation's biggest business group. Lee Myung-Bak, the country's first president from a business background, won office in December with a pledge to boost economic growth.
He acknowledged that the pardons would attract criticism and said he himself was "also negative" about the process. "However, I made the bold decision considering that business leaders face difficulties travelling abroad and they are being deterred from making new investment," he was quoted as telling a cabinet meeting.
"This amnesty will only strengthen the public belief that the rich always get away with any wrongdoing," the main opposition Democratic Party said in a statement. In all, the pardon covers almost 342,000 people, many of them convicted of minor traffic offences.
South Korean judges have a long record of leniency towards bosses of chaebol - giant family-run conglomerates - and other prominent white-collar criminals. Many of them subsequently receive pardons. "By tolerating corporate crimes, the government has damaged the spirit of law observance, which threatens the long-term growth of the Korean economy," Kim Sang-Jo, a professor at Hansung University, told Yonhap news agency.