A group of ruling party lawmakers committed to reform of large family-run conglomerates, or chaebol, said Sunday they will table a bill to parliament that calls for toughening legal punishment of chaebol owners convicted of corruption.

A revision of the Act of Aggravated Punishment for Specific Economic Crimes, to be introduced Monday by Rep. Min Hyun-ju and 22 other Saenuri Party lawmakers, is intended to prohibit chaebol owners accused of embezzlement and breach of trust from avoiding prison sentences by means of the probation system, the lawmakers said.

The revision also calls for the court to give prison terms of more than 15 years to chaebol owners convicted of incurring losses of more than 30 billion won ($26 million) through embezzlement and breach of trust.

The 23 Saenuri lawmakers belong to a party group devoted to economic democracy and the joint bill is in line with leading Saenuri presidential hopeful Park Geun-hye’s persistent call for sweeping chaebol reforms, which include restraint on presidential pardons for convicted chaebol owners and managers.

“So far, corruption-ridden conglomerate owners and managers have been given a suspended sentence or even a pardon, even if they were convicted of embezzling hundreds of billions of won,” Min said.

“Our ruling party lawmakers have decided to table the revised bill to terminate the practice of awarding an excessively mild punishment to chaebol owners.”

The bill also stipulates that chaebol owners convicted of embezzling 5 billion won or up to 30 billion won will be given a prison term of 10 years or more, while embezzlement of 500 million won to 5 billion won will result in an imprisonment of seven years or more, the lawmaker said. 

(Yonhap News)