By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter



Kim Woo-choong, former chairman of Daewoo Group, lies on a bed wearing a mask, and will be hospitalized for treatment at Severance Hospital in Sinchon, northern Seoul, Friday.
/ Korea Times

Kim Woo-choong, founder of now defunct-Daewoo Group, was hospitalized at Severance Hospital in Sinchon Friday due to his deteriorating health. He was indicted earlier this month for accounting fraud charges and has been confined in a detention center.
The prosecution is concerned that Kim’s hospitalization, which took place a month after he was arrested in Seoul following nearly six years of exile, will stall its investigation.

The 69-year-old former chairman arrived at the hospital around 9:10 a.m. in a Severance ambulance, and was placed in a VIP ward.

``We decided to allow Kim to receive medical checkups and treatment for heart disease and intestinal obstruction in accordance with the opinion of a doctor at the detention center,’’ a Ministry of Justice official said.

The prosecution believes Kim’s hospitalization will not last long, and plans to suspend their investigation of him but continue investigating the circumstances of the Daewoo bankruptcy and other Daewoo executives.

If Kim’s recovery is slow, prosecutors will interview him at the hospital if necessary.

The prosecution indicted Kim on charges of orchestrating accounting fraud worth 41 trillion won and obtaining 9.9 trillion won in bank loans by falsifying numbers.

After the indictment, prosecutors investigated suspicions that Kim lobbied politicians to prevent the collapse of Daewoo Group and that political figures were involved in his overseas flight.

The investigation has been put on hold several times due to Kim’s poor health. He had five operations for intestinal disorders during his stay overseas, and also may need heart surgery for two blocked arteries.

If he undergoes surgery, the investigation, scheduled to end in July, is likely to be extended.

Investigators demanded that Daewoo officials submit documents dealing with Kim’s overseas flight. Kim claimed group executives and creditor banks suggested that he stay abroad, while creditors have denied it.

Regarding the suspicion that Kim funneled about 4 trillion won out of the country through Daewoo’s London-based financing unit British Finance Center (BFC), the prosecution will dispatch an investigator to London next week to retrieve BFC’s financial records.

A BFC official will accompany the investigator throughout the four or five days of the visit, according to the prosecution. The BFC is believed to be a paper company of Daewoo that handled cash transactions for the group’s overseas operations.

rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr