Yoo Byung-Eun, former chairman of the Semo Group (died in 2014), was born in New York, USA.

According to the New York Times (NYT) on the 23rd (local time), a US Department of Justice spokesman said Yoo Hyuk-ki, who was allegedly embezzled by a shipping company operating the Sewol Lake, was arrested the day before at his home in Westchester County, New York.

Yoo Hyuk-ki was the only Korean prosecutor who had failed to secure a new recruit among the two children of two sons and two daughters of the late President Yoo Byung-eun, and was caught in response to a request for repatriation of the criminals submitted to the United States by Korea.

He was known as the de facto successor by leading the management of affiliates, following former chairman Yoo Byung-Eun, who was the real controlling shareholder of the Sewol ferry owner, Qinghai Shipping.

US Justice Department spokesman Nicole Navers Oxman said Mr. Yoo Hyuk-ki was arrested by the United States Sheriff's Office (USMS) without much resistance and was present on the same day as a detention in the White Plains District Court.

The International Criminal Justice Department (OIA) and the New York Southern District Attorney's Office are proceeding to deliver criminal offenses against Yoo Hyuk-ki, Oxman said.

Derek Wickstrom, a federal prosecutor at the New York Southern District Attorney's Office, conspired with a company run by family members to collect money worth $230 million (about 276 billion won) in the warden by Mr. Yoo Hyuk-ki in the name of a false trademark contract or consulting fee. He said he was under suspicion.

Previously, U.S. permanent resident, Hyuk-ki Yoo, has refused to return to Korea despite three requests from the Korean prosecution since the Sewol ferry tragedy that killed more than 300 people in April 2014.

At the time, the prosecution issued a red mug for Mr. Yoo Hyuk-ki through Interpol and asked for extradition, but he was arrested on the same day for several years after the material was unknown.

Prosecutors alleged that Mr. Yoo's family provided the cause of the Sewol ferry tragedy due to unreasonable overwork in the process of violating safety obligations and stealing funds.

Chairman Yoo Byung-Eun was found dead in July 2014.

His eldest son, Dae Kyun, was sentenced to two years in jail for charges of embezzlement, etc., and his eldest daughter, Sangna, who was also accused of embezzlement, was forced to repatriate in France in 2017 after three years of escape from France.

(Photo = Yonhap News TV, Yonhap News)