Celebrating New Year's Eve, South Korea granted amnesty to 75 politicians and businessmen, including the former chairman of Daewoo Group, Kim Woo-choong.Kim Woo-choong was sentenced by a Seoul appeals court on Friday November 3, 2006 to eight and a half years in prison. The founder and former chairman of collapsed conglomerate Daewoo, who was sentenced for embezzlement, accounting fraud, illegal financing and diverting funds out of the country, was pardoned under the presidential amnesty. For the others, South Korea reduced sentences or had suspended rights restored.
The end of Daewoo Group was the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis which came with massive debt for the company. During that crisis, South Korea's government was forced to accept a $58 billion International Monetary Fund bailout.
Back during that period, Detroit-based General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) didn't miss the opportunity to buy a major stake in Daewoo Motor to create GM Daewoo in 2002.
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