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Supreme Court approves suspended prison sentence for Hyosung chief

Published: 16 Oct. 2025, 14:10

Hyosung Group Chairman Cho Hyun-joon gives celebration remarks after he was named the CEO of the year in March 2023. [HYOSUNG]

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a lower court's suspended prison sentence for Hyosung Group Chairman Cho Hyun-joon, seven years and nine months after he was indicted for embezzlement and other charges.

Cho was indicted in January 2018 on multiple charges, including incurring 17.9 billion won ($12.6 million) in losses for a Hyosung subsidiary, making an illicit profit of 1.2 billion won through art transactions and paying 1.6 billion won in salaries to false employees.

A district court handed out a two-year prison sentence to Cho in 2019 but the Seoul High Court granted a suspended prison sentence after acquitting him of most charges the following year. He was convicted only on the charge of embezzling 1.6 billion won from company coffers.

Approving the appellate court's two-year prison sentence, suspended for three years, for Cho, the Supreme Court said there was no error or misunderstanding of the legal principles in the lower court's verdict.

Yonhap