Hyundai Motor boss escapes jail over huge slush fund

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2007

SEOUL (AFP) — The head of the world's sixth largest automaker on Thursday escaped a jail sentence for creating a multi-million dollar slush fund, after an appeal court ruled that his imprisonment would badly damage South Korea's economy.

The Seoul High Court quashed a three-year prison sentence on Hyundai Automotive Group chairman Chung Mong-Koo and replaced it with a suspended sentence.

It ordered him to undertake community service -- including delivering speeches and writing articles on the need for ethics in business -- and to make good on his pledge to donate one billion dollars to charity.

"The court has been agonising over whether to put the accused in jail or keep him out of prison," said chief judge Lee Jae-Hong.

"But in consideration of the...