Top court orders retrial for Taekwang Group chief

The nation's top court on Tuesday returned to a lower court a ruling that convicted the chairman of Taekwang Group on charges of embezzlement.

Lee Ho-jin was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison at the Seoul High Court in December 2012 for a series of corruption charges, including misappropriation of some tens of billions of won through manipulating books on textile sales.

He allegedly created slush funds by selling the products without recording them in the books and underreporting the amount of products produced.

While finding Lee guilty of the charges, the Supreme Court said the appellate court should recalculate the amount misappropriated.

The chairman, meanwhile, has been released on bail since June 2012 for health problems. (Yonhap)