SEOUL-- Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said Wednesday he had no involvement with Lone Star Funds while working at a law firm that represented the company, as South Korea was ordered to pay the U.S. private equity firm US$216.5 million plus interest over a decadelong dispute surrounding its sell-off of a local bank.
Han had been under scrutiny because he worked as an adviser for the law firm Kim & Chang from November 2002 to July 2003, when Lone Star acquired a controlling stake in Korea Exchange Bank (KEB).
Asked about his stint at the law firm at that time, Han replied, "I have never been involved with that at all."
The ruling by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes accounts for 4.6 percent of the $4.68 billion Lone Star had demanded in compensation.
South Korea's justice ministry expressed regrets over the verdict and said it will actively consider pursuing an appeal.
Asked about the ruling, Han replied, "Personally, I have never been involved with Lone Star.
"It is difficult to say anything at this stage," Han told reporters.
Han served as finance minister in 2006, when the Board of Audit and Inspection launched a special inspection into the Lone Star case.
Lone Star's 2003 acquisition of KEB and selloff of it in 2012 has been a target of criticism in South Korea amid widespread perceptions that the firm made huge profits by taking advantage of the country's economic difficulties in the wake of the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s.
Source: Yonhap News Agency