HDC Chairman Jung Mong-kyu to Stand Trial After Contesting Fine for Omitting Uncle's and Sister's Companies

Indicted for Violating the Fair Trade Act
Receives Summary Order for 150 Million Won Fine from the Court

Jung Mong-kyu, Chairman of HDC, will stand trial on charges of submitting documentation that omitted affiliates owned by his relatives. He has chosen to contest the summary order for a fine in court rather than accept it.

According to the legal community on May 28, Chairman Jung recently requested a formal trial, objecting to a summary order for a fine of 150 million won issued for violating the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act (Fair Trade Act). Previously, on May 15, Judge Kim Jae-hak of the Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Division 11 issued the summary order. In South Korea, a summary order is a procedure where minor offenses are handled with fines or monetary penalties imposed based solely on written documents, without a formal trial. Defendants can request a formal trial within seven days of receiving the order.

The case involving Chairman Jung will be presided over by Judge Lee Hwan-gi of the Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Division 26.

Jung Mong-kyu, Chairman of HDC. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

Chairman Jung is accused of omitting certain affiliates owned by his family when submitting documentation for designation as a large business group subject to cross-shareholding restrictions from 2021 to 2024. This designation system regulates cross-shareholding among affiliates within large business groups, and the group owner (the so-called "Same Person") is required to report the full status of all affiliates without omission.

The Fair Trade Commission found that Chairman Jung omitted 17 affiliates in 2021, 19 in 2022, 19 in 2023, and 18 in 2024. After excluding overlapping companies, the total number of omitted affiliates amounts to 20.

Among the omitted companies, 12—including SJG Holdings—are controlled by the family of Chairman Jung's maternal uncle, Park Se-jong, Honorary Chairman of SJG Sejong. Eight companies, including Intranshaewoon, were found to be controlled by Chairman Jung's younger sister, Jung Yoo-kyung, and her husband, Kim Jong-yeop, who is CEO of Intranshaewoon.

The Fair Trade Commission determined that Chairman Jung had submitted false documentation for up to 19 years, from 2006 (when he was designated as the Same Person for HDC) to 2024. However, taking into account the five-year statute of limitations, only the omissions that occurred after 2021 are subject to sanctions.

Based on the Fair Trade Commission's criminal complaint, prosecutors completed their investigation and, on April 6, requested the court to impose a fine of 150 million won on Chairman Jung through a summary indictment.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.