Supreme Court gives 8-year jail term to president's ex-business partner

SEOUL, May 28 (Yonhap) -- The Supreme Court on Thursday handed down an eight-year
prison term and 10-billion-won (US$8 million) in fines to a Korean-American
businessman who claimed to be involved in an investment scam with President Lee
Myung-bak.

The defendant, Kim Kyung-joon, was indicted on charges of embezzling nearly 32
billion won from investors in one of his firms and manipulating the company's
stock prices in 2001.
The Supreme Court's ruling upheld an earlier appellate court decision sentencing
Kim to an eight-year jail term.
Kim's case, widely known as the "BBK scandal" named after a firm set up by Kim
and Lee in 2000, broke open at the height of the 2007 presidential race. Kim, who
was extradited from the United States in late 2007 to face trial in South Korea
on embezzlement charges, used a forged contract to claim that Lee had
collaborated in the fraud scheme.
The prosecution cleared Lee of wrongdoing before the election, and a separate
probe by a special counsel again cleared him of the allegations following the
election. Lee won the election by a landslide in spite of the scandal.
brk@yna.co.kr
(END)