分享

Did Sung's rags-to-riches story affect last days?

 宜净心斋 2015-04-15

The late Sung Woan-jong
Was it a dying man's spiteful act of vengeance or a confession from the bottom of his heart?

Currently, there is no way of knowing which is true.

When Sung Woan-jong killed himself last Thursday, he left behind what appears to be a list of those who received money from him.

The list includes, among others, the current chief of staff for President Park Geun-hye, as well as two previous holders of that office.

The rub is that all seven on the list have sworn they never received any money from the deceased businessman.

Although it remains to be seen who is telling the truth, another salient point that has captured the public's imagination is his rags-to-riches story and how it could have affected his emotional state during his last days.

Born in 1951 in the small coastal town of Seosan, South Chungcheong Province, Sung couldn't finish his elementary school because of extreme poverty.

When he arrived in Seoul at the age of 12, running away from his abusive stepmother, Sung had just a little bit more than nothing in his pocket.

His life started blooming after he acquired a construction firm in 1976, with money he earned from dozens of menial jobs from newspaper deliveries to food distribution. Only six years later, he took over Dae-a Engineering & Construction, one of the largest construction companies in the region at that time.

His business acumen propelled him to the top post of Keangnam Enterprises in 2003. Under his leadership, the company's sales peaked at 2 trillion won ($1.8 billion).

Yet, by then ― perhaps mistakenly, he wanted to become a politician. The founder of Chungcheong Forum, a social gathering for politicians, businessmen and journalists from the region, often boasted that the membership surpassed 1,000. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is among the famous members.

But his path to the National Assembly was bumpy. Sung ran for general elections in 2000 and 2004, only to experience the bitterness of defeat.

In 2012, he was finally elected as a lawmaker from the conservative Liberty Forward Party. But he soon lost his seat when the Supreme Court fined him 5 million won for violating the election laws.

When former President Lee Myung-bak was running in the presidential election in 2007, Sung briefly worked for him as an adviser. With that, he later became known as a close confidant to Lee, which he refuted a day before he committed suicide last week.

When President Park ran for the presidential election in 2012, he supported her. Sung reportedly had maintained good relationship with many of her aides.

After leaving politics, Sung tried to revitalize the faltering Keangnam but the company went into a court receivership program in March, which forced him out of the chairman post.

It was only the beginning of more troubles ahead of him.

In March, prosecutors started investigating Sung over alleged fraud and the creation of a slush fund during the firm's overseas energy exploration projects conducted under the previous Lee administration.

He faced charges of fabricating the firm's financial situation to receive government loans of 46 billion won for the projects, and misusing part of this money.

At a press conference held on Wednesday, Sung denied the charges with tears. But few believed him. He reportedly contacted a few of President Park's aides for help, only to be rejected by all of them.


https://www./www/news/nation/2015/04/116_176952.html

    本站是提供个人知识管理的网络存储空间,所有内容均由用户发布,不代表本站观点。请注意甄别内容中的联系方式、诱导购买等信息,谨防诈骗。如发现有害或侵权内容,请点击一键举报。
    转藏 分享 献花(0

    0条评论

    发表

    请遵守用户 评论公约

    类似文章 更多