Prosecution Seeks 1 Year and 6 Months Imprisonment for DL Chairman Lee Hae-uk over 'Unfair Support to Affiliates'

Chairman Lee Hae-wook of DL Group, who was indicted on charges of unfairly supporting a privately owned company, is attending the first trial sentencing hearing held at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the morning of the 13th.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy reporters Seongpil Jo and Daehyun Kim] The prosecution has requested a prison sentence of 1 year and 6 months for Lee Hae-wook, chairman of DL Group, who was indicted on charges of unfairly supporting affiliated companies.

At the sentencing hearing held on the morning of the 13th at the Seoul Central District Court, Criminal Division 5, presided over by Judge Kim Jun-hyuk, the prosecution stated, "We intend to point out the unfair transfer of wealth that repeatedly occurs in major domestic conglomerates," and made the sentencing request. The prosecution also asked the court to impose fines of 100 million won each on the indicted companies DL Corporation and its subsidiary Glad Hotel & Resort.

The prosecution said, "The defendant, who belongs to the 19th largest corporate group in Korea with total assets of 20 trillion won and 36 affiliates, used other affiliates to gain personal profits worth tens of billions of won, making corresponding punishment inevitable," adding, "The defendant's attitude of denying the crime in court and showing no signs of remorse must be considered as an unfavorable factor in sentencing."

Chairman Lee was indicted on charges of violating the Fair Trade Act by transferring the trademark rights of the group's hotel brand 'GLAD' to APD, a company wholly owned by him and his son, and allowing the subsidiary Ora Tourism (currently Glad Hotel & Resort) to use it. He is also charged with having Ora Tourism pay approximately 3.1 billion won in fees to APD under the name of brand usage rights.

Earlier, the Fair Trade Commission found that the fees paid by Ora Tourism to APD were excessively high and constituted an "unfair provision of benefits to related parties" under the Fair Trade Act. In May 2019, the commission reported Chairman Lee and related companies to the prosecution. After receiving the report and reviewing the case, the prosecution indicted Chairman Lee and others in December of the same year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.