Ex-CEO of Daewoo Shipbuilding Grilled
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) is being rocked by estimated trillions of won (billions of U.S. dollars) of accounting fraud amid the ongoing restructuring process for Daewoo as well as other two shipbuilders, says a report in Xinhua.
The former CEO of DSME Koh Jae-ho (61), who headed the troubled company from 2012 to 2015, has been grilled by prosecutors on suspicions of a massive accounting fraud.
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office’s special investigation team interrogated Ko Jae-ho for around 20 hours until 5 a.m. Tuesday over allegations that he ordered a window dressing settlement worth some five-point-four trillion won, or about four-point-seven billion U.S. dollars.
Koh has been accused of ordering a 5.4 trillion-won (4.7 billion U.S. dollars) accounting fraud to overstate operation profits from 2012 to 2014 by underestimating production costs in offshore energy projects such as oil rigs and drilling ships.
Prosecutors focused the questioning on whether Ko ordered his financial executives to manipulate the numbers or if he was reported to attempt to fabricate the ledger when he served as the shipbuilder's CEO between 2012 and 2014.
The prosecution also investigated whether he also connived in doling out huge bonuses to the company’s executives and employees with the inflated business performances.
"I feel deeply responsible for the grim situation faced by the company," Koh told reporters before entering the prosecutors' office. Still, Ko denied allegations he ordered his subordinates to manipulate figures.