A South Korean film director is facing fraud charges for allegedly not paying back some 10 billion won ($8.1 million) he borrowed from a local bank, prosecutors said Wednesday.
A former head of a local savings bank filed charges against Kwak Kyung-taek, best known for "Friend" (2001), with the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office on Tuesday, prosecutors said.
In the petition, the 58-year-old former banker said Kwak borrowed some 17.5 billion won from 2008 to 2011 and did not repay about 9.2 billion won.
When the 50-year-old director borrowed the money, he had no ability to repay his debt due to a series of box-office failures, according to the plaintiff.
Among the money Kwak borrowed, some 12.9 billion won was used for his own business or to repay other loans, despite the contract saying it was to be used for producing films and dramas, the plaintiff said.
The former banker was convicted of malpractice in 2013 for approving bad loans totaling some 100 billion won. The Supreme Court sentenced him to three years in prison, suspended for five years. (Yonhap)
