Last week saw perhaps the most high profile scalp of all former STX Group chairman Kang Duk-soo handed down a six-year jail sentence for fraud and embezzlement. The mastermind of STX’s rapid rise over in the first decade of the 21st century has seen his business empire across Asia and Europe crumble and now is now set to spend a lengthy period behind bars in his native South Korea.
Last week also saw former Sembcorp Marine finance chief Wee Sing Guan receive a 39-month jail term in Singapore for falsifying accounts that resulted in a $303m exchange rate loss for the shipyard group uncovered in October 2007. Wee plead guilty to nine counts of defrauding Sembcorp Marine with unauthorised foreign exchange losses. Wee who was fired in November 2007 was charged with 57 counts of fraud.
Going back a bit further to 2012, Pham Thanh Binh, formerly chairman of Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Corp (Vinashin), was jailed for the maximum 20 years for violating state regulations after the group collapsed under $4.5bn in debts. Binh had rapidly expanded Vinashin in the international arena in the 2003 -08 shipping boom but when the market turned, the state-owned group quickly fell into deep financial troubles.
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