SEOUL, A local court on Tuesday granted bail to the former chairman of South Korean underwear maker Ssangbangwool who had been arrested for embezzlement and illegal remittance to North Korea.
The Suwon District Court allowed former Ssangbangwool Chairman Kim Sung-tae to be released on bail on condition that he pay 100 million won (US$75,000) and carry a real-time location tracking device with him until trials are over.
The former chairman was released late Tuesday evening when the deposit was paid, a company official said.
Upon release from Suwon Detention Center, just south of Seoul, at around 8 p.m., Kim said he “will sincerely attend trials.”
The court’s decision allows the former chairman to attend the trials without physical detention.
On Feb. 3, 2023, Kim was indicted and detained on charges of embezzlement of funds worth 54 billion won in the group’s five unlisted “paper” companies and an illegal remittance of $8 million to the North and has since been behind bars.
Back in 2019, Ssangbangwool wa
s suspected of having provided $5 million for a North Korean smart farm project by Gyeonggi Province and costs of $3 million for former Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung’s trip to the North.
He has argued in past trials that Lee “recognized” Ssangbangwool’s payment for the farm project and his trip to Pyongyang, which was denied by the former governor. Lee has said he doesn’t even know of the former chairman.
Lee Jae-myung currently leads the main opposition Democratic Party and is a potential candidate for the next presidential election.
Ssangbangwool Group’s businesses range from underwear manufacturing, entertainment and information technology, to crane truck and heavy equipment manufacturing.
In other charges, Kim allegedly made the group’s underwear affiliate Ssangbangwool buy shares in another underwear firm Vivien at prices 7.8 billion won higher than regular prices in December 2020.
Special-purpose vehicle maker Kanglim Co. owned the Vivien stocks sold to Ssangbangwool and allegedly enjoye
d hefty proceeds from the sale.
Source: Yonhap News Agency
