Nexon founder Kim Jung-ju belongs to a new breed of entrepreneurs who have engineered Korea’s information technology boom and built their own business empires.
In many respects, Kim and his fellow IT gurus like Naver’s Lee Hae-jin, Kakao founder Kim Beom-soo and NCSoft founder Kim Taek-jin can be called Korea’s Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg.
All in their late 40s, they went to schools that draw the nation’s brightest -- Seoul National University and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. They were creative enough to start successful venture companies and possessed business acumen to build them into IT juggernauts, which put them on the list of billionaires.
No wonder they have become role models for many Koreans, especially youths who are struggling with the worst job market in several decades.
But the ugly corruption scandal involving Nexon’s Kim threatens to damage the reputation the new generation of entrepreneurs have built over the past decades.
Allegations that have been raised so far show that Kim, founder of the nation’s No. 1 online game maker, is little different from older tycoons of the family-run chaebol.
Prosecutors -- who have already questioned Kim three times -- have yet to charge him, but allegations made so far are sufficient to make us believe that he is not the man we thought he was – one who this nation could take pride in and who could inspire many youths going through difficulties so severe that they call their country “hell.”
What we have already come to know is that Kim gave -- in what is believed to be a bribe -- stocks of his own company to a senior prosecutor who is an old friends from college. Jin Kyung-joon pocketed 12.6 billion won ($10.94 million) by selling the stocks.
As if to emulate corrupt chaebol tycoons, Kim did more -- he let Jin use a luxury sedan leased by his company -- another suspected act of graft. Kim is also suspected of paying overseas travel expenses for Jin and his family and friends. This is what corrupt businesspeople do to buy protection from politicians, government officials and prosecutors.
Nexon was also found to have purchased land from the family of the wife of a top presidential aide (who is a former prosecutor who worked with Jin) in a suspicious deal worth 132.6 billion won.
All this indicates that Nexon, like chaebol, lacked transparent governance and was under the autocratic rule of Kim.
Given the allegations raised so far, the ongoing investigation by prosecutors is highly likely to result in Kim’s indictment. It is sad to see his legendary success story degrade into a shameful tale and taint the reputations of otherwise revered IT entrepreneurs.
