IOC member suspended after criminal conviction

17.03.2006

One month after his conviction for fraud, the IOC Executive Committee has finally decided to provisionally deprive Yong-sung Park from South Korea of all rights as an IOC member. The provision stays in place until the IOC Ethics Committee has completed its inquiry into the case and until the judicial authorities in South Korea have rendered a final judgement.

Yong-sung Park is President of the International Judo Federation. In February 2006 he was convicted of embezzlement and fraud by a court in South Korea and given a three year suspended jail sentence and a fine of 8.2 million US dollars

Yong-sung Park and three of his brothers were charged with pocketing more than 33 million US dollars from the family owned Doosan conglomerate. The brothers were also standing trial for an accounting fraud that inflated the company's sales figures by 292 million US dollars.

Whilst Park has given up all public posts in South Korea, he has said that he has no plans to quit his IOC membership or other international posts such as the chaimanship of International Chamber of Commerce or the presidency of the International Judo Federation.

Yong-sung Park faces a possible recommendation for expulsion from the IOC. Expulsion requires a two-thirds vote of the full IOC. The next IOC general assembly is in 2007.

IOC member suspended after criminal conviction

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