Court suspends Hyundai chairman's 3-year prison term

A South Korean court on Thursday said the chairman of Hyundai Motor Co. is too important to the country's economy and suspended the three-year jail term handed him in February for an embezzlement conviction.

The Seoul High Court said Chung Mong-koo can avoid going to prison if he maintains a clean record for the next five years.

In February, Chung was convicted in a lower court of embezzling more than $100 million US from his company for a slush fund that prosecutors alleged was used for personal use and to fund government lobbyists.

"I am also a citizen of the Republic of Korea," said presiding judge Lee Jae-hong on Thursday as he announced the suspended sentence. "I was unwilling to engage in a gamble that would put the nation's economy at risk."

Hyundai Motor Co. is the sixth-largest automaker in the world, and Chung has been pushing the company into heavy overseas expansion with new plants in China, India, Turkey, the United States and the Czech Republic.

"We can now devote our full energies to addressing the numerous challenges that face us and building a global brand," Hyundai said after the court's decision.

Critics of the decision said it reinforced the sentiment that the wealthy and powerful can avoid prison.