Controversy is brewing over the latest reinstatement of SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won as board director of SK C&C, the de facto holding company of SK.

Last week, Chey ― who is serving out a sentence for corporate malfeasance ― was named board director with a term of three years at a shareholders’ meeting. His term will be up until 2016.

The decision went through largely because Chey is currently the largest shareholder at SK C&C, with a 38 percent stake. The National Pension Fund, which holds a 1 percent stake in the company, had opposed the appointment. 

SK C&C said Chey’s reinstatement made sense for the sake of “responsible leadership.”

Civic groups disagreed.

“The way to take real responsibility would be to resign,” said the Solidarity for Economic Reform in a statement.

Kim Sun-woon, the executive director of the Center of Good Corporate Governance said that since Chey has caused damage to the SK Group affiliates, he should be punished, and not given authority as a major shareholder and owner.

“It seems Chey wants to use the position as board director to appeal to the courts, to show that he can’t be in jail because he has to lead a company,” Kim added.

In January, the SK owner and chairman was jailed for embezzling more than 46 billion won of company funds. Among the amount, 9.5 billion came from the coffers of SK C&C.

The harsh sentence ― a rare one for business tycoons here who are regarded as playing a key role in Korea’s industrialization ― had made Chey appear as the initial target for President Park Geun-hye, who was elected on an anti-chaebol platform.

By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)