SK Global books under scrutiny
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SK Group chairman Son Kil-seung was summoned by prosecutors last week.
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SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) -- An investigation at a trading unit of South Korea's fourth-largest business group, SK Group, has found 1.5 trillion won ($1.21 billion) of accounting irregularities, prosecutors said Tuesday.
"The investigation discovered SK Global had 1.5 trillion won of accounting irregularities in its 2001 financial books," prosecutors said in a statement given to reporters at the hearing.
The announcement came after prosecutors summoned the chairman of SK Group Son Kil-seung last week and arrested the chairman of SK Corp Chey Tae-won last month for questioning over suspicious stock deals.
SK Corp, South Korea's largest oil refiner, said on Monday it had revised down its 2002 net profit by half to 296.8 billion won to reflect losses from its stake in trading firm SK Global.
SK Global told Reuters it had yet to unveil 2002 earnings as the company had been under investigation.
SK Telecom, part of the SK Group and one of the largest listings on the Korea Stock Exchange, is down 1.27 percent to 143,000 won near the close Tuesday.
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