Former Daewoo boss, Choong, dies at 82

Phenomenal
Phenomenal
Former Daewoo boss, Choong, dies at 82
Former Daewoo boss, Choong

The Daewoosky Institute, reported on its website on Tuesday that Kim Woo Choong, the former leader of South Korea’s, second largest conglomerate Daewoo, has died as a result of a chronic illness.

The Daewoosky Institute, an organisation for former employees and managers reported that Kim, who was once considered South Korea’s flagship manager, died at the age of 82.

Kim had laid the foundation for his economic empire in 1967 with $5,000 and a small textile company.

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in May 2006 for embezzlement, accounting fraud and other offences.

He had surrendered to the authorities after six years on the run.

SEOUL, REPUBLIC OF KOREA: Daewoo Group founder Kim Woo-Choong, lying on a stretcher, leaves the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul, 30 May 2006, after being sentenced for fraud and embezzlement. Kim was sentenced to 10 years in prison for fraud and embezzlement relating to the collapse of the firm under heavy debts, court officials said. AFP PHOTO/KIM MI-OK (Photo credit should read KIM MI-OK/AFP via Getty Images)

In November 2006, an appeal court reduced the sentence to 8.5 years.

As part of a special amnesty, Kim’s prison term was suspended in late 2006 because of his poor health and was pardoned at the end of 2007.

The history of the Daewoo Group and the entrepreneurial biography of its former boss are symbolic of the rapid economic rise of South Korea but also of its unrestrained expansion drive.

The group collapsed in the late 1990s under a debt of about $80 billion.

The country’s second-largest conglomerate at the time had more than 40 affiliates, ranging from cars, electrical goods and household appliances to ships.

The group was later broken up.

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