SK Group chairman to stand trial Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, South Korea's third-biggest conglomerate, will stand trial for embezzlement, amid renewed investor concerns about whether South Korea is serious about cleaning up corruption in leading companies. Mr Chey's trial will be an important test case for improved corporate governance at SK Group and in the broader economy, after a 2003 conviction for a $1.2bn accounting fraud landed him in jail for several months, but did not prevent him from returning to the chairmanship. South Korea's president, Lee Myung-bak, himself a former conglomerate boss, granted Mr Chey a presidential pardon in 2008. IN Asia-Pacific Companies Leading South Korean tycoons, including the heads of Samsung Electronics - Lee Kun-hee - and Hyundai Motor - Chung Mong-koo - have in the past also been convicted of corruption and other financial crimes, but they have often received lenient punishments because of their contribution to the country's economic development. The prosecutors" announcement happened just hours after SK Telecom pledged to triple its investment for this year to Won19,000bn ($16.5bn) and hire 7,000 new workers. The increase comes at Mr Chey's request "to make aggressive investment plans for the sake of the national economy," SK said. The charge against Mr Chey, who heads a conglomerate with interests ranging from telecommunications to oil refining, comes as he is poised to acquire Hynix, the world's second biggest memory chipmaker by sales, in a deal valued at about $3bn. Prosecutors, who have not arrested Mr Chey, say he and his brother used more than Won200bn of company funds to cover losses made in personal investments in futures. "It is a typical example of tycoons" moral hazard and abuse of power ... because the owner family of SK Group ignored the interests of the group companies and used their position to secure funds for their personal investments in options," a prosecutor at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors" Office said in a televised briefing. Chey Jae-won, Mr Chey's brother and vice-chairman, was arrested last month. SK Group says Mr Chey has not used any company money inappropriately and will prove his innocence in court. The scandal has wiped out nearly Won1,000bn of the Chey family's stockholdings in SK C&C, the group's IT services company, since prosecutors raided the group's offices in early November. The Chey family's reputation was damaged in February when Chey Chul-won, the chairman's cousin, received an 18-month jail term for smashing a baseball bat into a man who was protesting outside SK's headquarters. Shares of SK Telecom, the country's largest wireless carrier, fell 0.36 per cent while SK Innovation, the group's refiner, closed up 2.66 per cent. The group's share prices were not affected by the news as it came after the stock market closed.