The Seoul District Court convicted Kim Suk Won of embezzlement and breach of trust.

Kim, 63, was found guilty of using 160 billion won (now US$154 million) in company funds illegally to support troubled group units and of embezzling 700 million won.

In previous hearings Kim called for leniency and said he had not used the money for his personal interests.

Ssangyong, once the country's sixth largest conglomerate, was forced to sell key subsidiaries in the wake of the financial crisis.

The group's crisis accelerated a corporate meltdown, leading to the collapse of the Daewoo Group in 1999.

Daewoo's auto unit took over Ssangyong Motor but sold it to China's Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation in late 2004.



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