Vigilantes hunt Daewoo 'fraudster'

Kim Woo-Choong in 1997, when still chairman of Daewoo

Former Daewoo boss Kim Woo-Choong is said to have looked to Britain for the means to embezzle trillions of won from the South Korean manufacturing group.

Now vigilantes are trying to track down the errant executive, who has been missing since 1999.

We plan to indict 30 people related to this investigation

State prosecutor's office

Five members of a team of civilian justice-seekers are preparing to travel from Seoul to Africa and Europe in search of Mr Kim, who they have branded the "worst ever economic criminal".

And the band, named Rob the Rich to Feed the Poor, claims as its inspiration Hong Kil-dong - Korea's fictional equivalent to Robin Hood, the mythical English figure who robbed wealthy mediaeval dignitaries to feed the needy.

Search party

They are being joined in the manhunt by workers from Daewoo Motors, which has struggled to survive since the Daewoo group collapsed two years ago.

Daewoo Motors workers: more action threatened

"We can only send four people, since we are really short of cash," said Choi Jong-Hak, spokesman for the Daewoo Motor labour union.

Indeed, staff are threatening to strike next week over Daewoo Motor's plans to lay off one-third of its workforce, and shut down its major plant for three weeks, in an effort to save costs.

The cutbacks have been proposed in a drive to rescue the carmaker, which has been operating under court protection since being declared bankrupt last November.

Other former Daewoo subsidiaries have already been successfully salvaged, with Daewoo Shipbuilding earning $3.3bn of orders last year.

Secret accounts

The Daewoo group, which Mr Kim spent 30 years building from a one-room textile importer into global manufacturing giant, collapsed in August 1999 with $80bn of debt.

The firm's downfall is said to have been accelerated by the channelling of trillions of won from Daewoo coffers into secret accounts allegedly held in London by a firm named the British Financial Centre.

Executives at the Daewoo group are reported to have doctored documents in order to inflate the value of the firm's assets by up to 23 trillion won (£12.6bn).

Based on this picture of the firm's finances, South Korean banks extended 10 trillion won (£5.47bn) in loans to Daewoo between 1997 and 1999.

Fraud charges

Seven former employees were charged last week with fraud, embezzlement and massaging the company's assets, and prosecutors have pledged to bring further felons to justice.

The latest tip we received placed Kim Woo-Choong at a golf course in Palm Beach, Florida, so we still haven't decided where to send our search party

Choi Jong-Hak, Daewoo Motor labour union

"We plan to indict 30 people related to this investigation," a spokesman for the state prosecutor's office said.

Prosecutors are known to be keen to speak to talk to Mr Kim, and are collecting evidence to back charges that he funnelled 3 trillion won to bank accounts held for him in Britain.

He is also accused of overseeing the document tampering programme.

Far and wide

But investigators may have trouble finding him. Since fleeing Korea in September 1999, Mr Kim has been spotted as far afield as Germany, Sudan, Senegal and Nice, where he is said to own a luxury villa.

"The latest tip we received placed Kim Woo-Choong at a golf course in Palm Beach, Florida, so we still haven't decided where to send our search party," Mr Choi said.

Mr Choi, and the Rob the Rich to Feed the Poor vigilantes, may anyway be too late to lead the manhunt with the nine active pursuers they boast between them.

Prosecutors on Wednesday boosted their own search for the missing mogul by asking for the help of South Korea's diplomatic missions and Interpol, organisations which boast considerably more resources.