The Seoul High Court in South Korea has turned down an appeal in the case of IOCmemberPark Yong-sung who was convicted of embezzling the Doosan Group earlier this year. The IOC has already suspended Park Yong-sung but must now decide whether he should be expelled permanently.
The IOC Ethics Commission has decided not to take final action until the judicial authorities in South Korea have rendered a final judgement. That time has come now as Park Yong-sung has decided not to appeal the suspended sentence of three years in prison and a fine equivalent to 8.2 million US dollars to the Korean Supreme Court.
Journalists in Korea are instead speculating that Park Yong-sung hopes for a special pardon on 15 August which is Liberation Day in South Korea.
According to the Korea Times, business groups in Korea have appealed to the president for the amnesty of 55 convicted business men and another 23 who are under investigation and it is believed that Park Yong-sung’s name could be on the list.
Park dumped from International Chamber of Commerce
Only recently Guy Drut – a French member of the IOC – received a presidential pardon for his conviction of corruption. A few weeks later, the IOC’s Ethics Commission punished Guy Drut for tarnishing the reputation of the Olympic Movement and denied him the right to chair any IOC commission for five years.
So even with a pardon, Park Yong-sung could end up loosing his place on the International Olympic Committee. That depends on how much damage the Ethics Commission believes Park has inflicted on the Olympic movement.
At the time of his conviction, Park Yong-sung was also chairman of the Paris-based organisation International Chamber of Commerce. The organisation is deeply committed to combating corporate crime and has discretely dumped the former chairman.
In April, an official from International Chamber of Commerce told the South Korean news agency, Yonhap, that Park had resigned for “personal reasons”. However, the resignation was not announced on the company’s website, and the news agency only got the information two months later by granting the source anonymity.
See also earlier news stories about Park Yong-sung:
IOC member convicted of embezzlement and fraud (17 February 2006)
IOC member suspended after criminal conviction (17 March 2006)
