S KOREAN FINANCIAL WATCHDOG ACCUSES HYNIX OF COOKING BOOKS.

AsiaPulse News, September, 2004

SEOUL, Sept 20 Asia Pulse - Hynix Semiconductor Inc., the second largest memory chip maker in the world, was found to have cooked its books by nearly 2 trillion won (US$1.75 billion) in 1999, South Korea's financial watchdog said today.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), Hynix engaged in window dressing worth 1.98 trillion won as of 1999.

Hynix, formerly known as Hyundai Electronics Industry Co., used such deceptive accounting methods as substituting expenses with assets under construction from 1996, the FSS said.

Hynix, however, lowered the "fake assets" to 1.85 trillion won in 2000, 1.28 trillion won in 2001 and 0.74 trillion won in 2002, and they are now completely removed from the books, the FSS said.

It applied...