South Korean wants businessmen with convictions

IN A BID TO boost the South Korean economy, President Lee Myung-bak has backed a sweeping amnesty for convicted business tycoons. Myung-bak, whose name sounds like a euphemism for something furtive, says forgiving the dodgy dealers will boost the economy.

He could be onto something. Indeed, research suggests that psychopaths have an unnatural advantage in business. (Here’s one of many links.)

But whether employing criminals will help him achieve his stated aim - “to help strengthen national unity and provide momentum for business leaders, reinvigorate the economy and create new jobs” – is another matter.

Myung-bak has pardoned 74 leading business crooks, including wrong ‘uns such as Chung Mong-koo (the Hyundai Motor chairman), Chey Tae-won (SK group chairman) and Kim Seung-youn (Hanwha group chairman).

It’s a tradition that goes back to Aug. 15, 1945, when Korea threw off Japanese colonial rule. Liberation Day is marked by pardoning criminals.

Critics say this undermines that country’s attempt to clean up its corporate culture. But most of the listed business convicts are already free on suspended jail terms.

How bad are these convicts though? Chung was convicted last year for raising a slush fund to bribe government officials. In Britain he’d be a cabinet minister or a peer, but a Korean appeal court in June upheld a suspended three-year jail sentence.

Kim Seung-youn is more straightforward. He was jailed for kidnapping and beating up bar employees after his son sustained injuries in a bar brawl. Good man!

SK’s group chairman Chey might need a watchful eye though. He got a suspended sentence for irregular business practices, including illicit stock dealing and book-keeping ‘irregularities’ involving 1.5 trillion won (US$1.07 billion).

Former Samsung group chairman Lee Kun-hee was not included. He is still on trial for tax evasion after he quit the nation’s biggest business group.

Lee Myung-bak is doing the business community proud. He is the country’s first president from a commercial background, and won office by promising to boost economic growth.

There’s a few complaints though.

“This amnesty will only strengthen the public belief that the rich always get away with any wrongdoing,” said an opposition Democratic Party statement.

Absolute nonsense, said Yu Wan Sum Pal, VP of a dog fighting emporium.

“This can only be good for the economy. We do a lot for charity, and we only hurt our own,” agreed Fu Kee Na Vim, MD of a night club security firm, Kik Kok.

The pardon covers almost 342,000 people, many of them convicted of minor traffic offences.

“By tolerating corporate crimes, the government has damaged the spirit of law observance, which threatens the long-term growth of the Korean economy,” said Kim Sang-jo, a professor at Hansung University. µ