Lee Joong-Keun – Billionaire

Self-made billionaire Lee Joong-Keun built his construction and property business, Booyoung Group, at a time when government policies favored rentals. After declaring bankruptcy in 1979, he put Booyoung shares in his relatives’ names so that he could do deals. Starting in 2004, he served a three-year jail term and paid $11.5 million in fines after being convicted for embezzling company funds. Since his release in 2007, he has been an exemplary success. In the private sector, Booyoung is Korea’s largest provider of rental housing. He’s also been buying up hotels, country clubs and resorts in South Korea. In early 2016, Booyoung agreed to buy the 25-story Samsung Life Insurance building in central Seoul for around $460 million. Lee places considerable emphasis on corporate responsibility, and is known to be a generous benefactor — donating to families of disaster victims and granting scholarships and school supplies to support education in developing Southeast Asian countries. A keen student of modern Korean history, he has authored and published two books. “Liberation 1,775 Days” chronicles what happened during the five-year period after liberation from Japanese colonial rule up until the outbreak of the Korean War. His previous book is titled “The Korea War 1,129 Days.”

Source:

1. forbes