South Korean police have applied for an arrest warrant to detain Cho Yang-ho – the Korean Air Lines CEO and Chairman of the Hanjin Group.

 

The authorities say this is in connection with further questioning related to ongoing allegations that he used company money for personal gain.

 

Police say they now want to question Cho Yang-ho again to ascertain whether he diverted company money to pay for expenses related to personal property – an amount alleged to be well in excess of $2bn between the years of 2013 to 2014. Cho is understood to have categorically denied any wrongdoing.

 

POLICE SEARCHED KAL’S OFFICE LAST JULY

This will not be the first time Cho has spoken to police on this subject, although he has previously denied the allegation. The reticence of police to charge him with any offence to date would also seem to raise big questions over the credibility of any evidence they may hold against him however. Otherwise they would have presumably charged him already. Police even searched Korean Air’s offices back in July in connection with their inquiries.

 

As is well known, Cho Yang-ho is the father of former KAL Senior Vice President of Inflight Service Heather Cho. She resigned back in 2014 after receiving a 10-month jail sentence suspended for two years for behaving badly towards an on-board cabin crew member.

 

As part of the same incident she ordered the Seoul-bound KAL plane to return to its gate at New York JFK after it had already pushed back to depart, following the aforementioned altercation. [See previous story coverage: https://www.trbusiness.com/regional-news/asia-pacific/heather-cho-released-after-sentence-is-suspended/76534]

 

Meanwhile, Police in Seoul have also indicated that they are interested in talking to another man in relation to their interest in Cho Yang-ho, although they have not released his identity to date.

 

Korean Air Lines continues to be the world’s most successful inflight duty free retailer, with an historic $150m-plus annual sales turnover, although its business has been impacted by the well publicised Chinese Government’s embargo on that country’s citizens visiting South Korea.