The former chairwoman of South Korea's liquidated Hanjin Shipping was put under court custody after she was convicted of insider trading to sell her family's stake before creditors announced a debt restructuring program for the troubled shipper.
A criminal court in Seoul sentenced Choi Eun-young, 55, to 18 months in jail along with a fine of 1.2 billion won (1.1 million US dollars). She was also ordered to pay about 500 million won in restitution.
"It is a serious crime that shakes the foundations of the market economy order," the court said in a statement. She was found guilty of causing "unpredictable" losses to shareholders and investors by using inside information to sell a stake held by herself and her daughters in the shipping company.
Choi began controlling Hanjin Shipping in 2008 after succeeding her late husband, Cho Su-ho, who was the younger brother of Hanjin Group patriarch Cho Yang-ho. She established an independent company in 2014.
Under snowballing debts, Hanjin Shipping, which used to be the world's seventh-largest shipper, filed for court receivership in April last year. It was formally liquidated in February this year under a sweeping government-led program to restructure South Korea's ailing shipping and shipbuilding sectors.