|
|
|
|
|
| June 22, 2000 | atimes.com | ||
|
|
The Koreas
Daewoo's secret London account exposed SEOUL - Korea's Daewoo Group illegally operated a secret account of over US$7.5 billion at a financial market in London, a local magazine reported Tuesday. The Weekly News Magazine said that hundreds of millions of dollars had been used without proper authorization and no records were kept on how the money was spent. Only Daewoo Group founder Kim Woo-choong and his close aides knew about the secret account, named British Finance Center (BFC), the magazine said. The funds were raised through surpluses from local financial institutions, headquarters and overseas corporations and profits from vehicle sales. Of the funds, $3.4 billion was used to pay bank interest and the rest went to cover losses and maintain overseas operations. The findings have already been reported by Daewoo's overseas credit consulting company, Lazard Asia Ltd, and the group's Restructuring Committee to creditors abroad. Creditors say transactions through the BFC were not listed and violated foreign exchange and outside auditor laws, pointing to the possibility that the money was a slush fund. The Financial Supervisory Commission has uncovered nearly 10 trillion won (US$8.936 billion) spent without being recorded, and is now concentrating on tracing the flow of the funds. (Asia Pulse/Yonhap) |
|||||||||
|
|
|
|
Front | China | Southeast Asia | Japan | Koreas | India/Pakistan | Central Asia/Russia | Oceania | Business Briefs | Global Economy | Asian Crisis | Media/IT | Editorials | Letters | Search/Archive |
|
back to the top ©2000 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd. Asia Times Online is designed and produced by Multimedia Asia Co., Ltd. |
