Widow of S.Korea ferry tycoon receives suspended jail sentence

Seoul news;

Widow of South Korean tycoon blamed
for April's ferry disaster that killed  moer
than 300 passengers received a suspended
18 months jailed sentence Thursday for
embezzlement.

Prosecutors indicted Kwon Yoon Ja 71
for siphoning off some $28 million from
a business group that owns Chonghaejin
Marine Co. the operator of   the ill fated
Sewol ferry

A district court in Incheon City also
sentenced her brother  Kwon Oh Kyun
to five years in prison for pocketing
the diverted fund.

Their son Yoo Dae Kyun was sentence
last month to three years in prison for
siphoning $7.2milliom from Chonghaejin
Marine and its six sister companies between
2002 and late last year.

Following the ferry singking ,a manhunt was
launched for the reclusive tycoon.
The badly decomposed body of the elderYoo
who in addition to his substantial business
interests also ran a religious group .was found
in June.Post mortem autopsy failed to determine
the cause of his death.

The 6,825 Sewol was carrying 476 people
most of them high school students on an organised
trip--when the overloaded ,ill balanced ship
commanded by what the court termed as an
"incompetent"crew capsized off the southern
coast of April the 16--AFP.