"Loan to Family Company"... Yoon Hong-geun, BBQ Chairman, Sentenced to 30 Million Won Fine in First Trial

Yoon Hong-geun, chairman of Genesis BBQ Group, who was indicted on charges of causing damage to the company by lending holding company funds to a family company, was sentenced to a fine in the first trial.

The Criminal Division 2 of Seongnam Branch of Suwon District Court (Chief Judge Lee Jin-hyuk) sentenced Chairman Yoon to a fine of 30 million won on the 17th for breach of trust under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes.

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The court stated regarding approximately 210 million won out of the 4.3 billion won breach of trust amount in the indictment, "There was no legal interest between the victim company (Genesis BBQ) and the contracted company (Company J), so there was no qualification to provide funds, but the victim company can be seen as having supported the funds that the defendant should have borne," and "The funding support to the defendant's family company constitutes breach of trust, and it can be recognized that there was intent."

However, the court judged that the remaining 4.1 billion won in the indictment could not be considered breach of trust, nor was it easy to see that there was intent.

The court cited as the basis for this judgment that Company J, although a family company established by Chairman Yoon's family, was actually operated like an affiliate of Genesis BBQ Group and pursued mutual benefits and synergy effects with the group affiliates.

Chairman Yoon was indicted without detention in January last year on charges of causing financial damage to Genesis BBQ by having the group lend tens of billions of won to his personal company, Company J, from 2013 to 2016, and failing to take sufficient recovery measures.

Company J is a personal company established in July 2013 with 100% investment by Chairman Yoon's family and is not an affiliate of Genesis or BBQ. Subsequently, Company J was sold due to reasons such as capital erosion.

The investigation into this case began when competitor bhc Chicken filed a complaint against Chairman Yoon for breach of trust in April 2021.

The police, after investigating for about a year, decided not to prosecute in July 2022, but after bhc's appeal was accepted, the prosecution found that Chairman Yoon was guilty of breach of trust and sent the case to trial in January last year.

Genesis BBQ Group stated immediately after the verdict, "We acknowledge that there is no guilt for about 4.1 billion won out of the total 4.3 billion won breach of trust amount in the indictment, and we regret the fine sentence for the remaining approximately 210 million won which was judged guilty."

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