Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's largest automaker, said Thursday it will begin construction of a new plant in the Czech Republic as planned, despite Chairman Chung Mong-koo's conviction on charges of embezzlement and three-year prison sentence.
A ground-breaking ceremony for Hyundai Motor's US$1 billion auto assembly factory in the Nosovice region of the Czech Republic will be held in April, company spokesman Jake Jang said by telephone.
"An exact date hasn't been set yet, but we will hold the ground-breaking ceremony for the Czech plant as planned," Jang said.
But it's unclear whether the chairman will attend the ceremony, he added.
In addition, its affiliate Kia Motors Corp. will hold a plant opening ceremony in Slovakia as scheduled, the spokesman said without elaborating further.
On Monday, a South Korean court found the 69-year-old Chung guilty of embezzling $100 million from Hyundai Motor and bribing government officials for business favors.
The court said Chung used several millions of dollars for himself, calling the chairman's behavior a "clear-cut criminal act." Chung's lawyers say they would appeal and a second verdict is due for June.
Shareholder activists and corporate governance campaigners welcomed Monday's ruling because it bucked a past trend of light punishment for corporate malfeasance by owners of family-run industrial conglomerates, known as "chaebol" in Korean.
Seoul, Feb. 8 (Yonhap News)
Hyundai to break ground on Czech plant in April despite chairman's conviction |
