SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won is back at the helm of his enterprise, though he is trying to keep a low profile after he confessed to having a child out of wedlock, group officials said on Wednesday.

Last month, the head of South Korea’s third-largest conglomerate admitted to having a child with an unidentified woman, adding he was going through divorce proceedings with his wife. 

Since the announcement, Chey has been working mainly from undisclosed locales, rather than at the group’s Seoul headquarters, his aides said.

“He is managing the company affiliates and visiting SK factories at the beginning of the year,” a company official said, without elaborating on details.

Chey visited SK hynix’s factory south of Seoul and other affiliates earlier this month, and is scheduled to travel to Switzerland during Jan. 19-23 to participate in the World Economic Forum.

Chey’s confession came amid souring public sentiment toward misdeeds by family members of family-run conglomerates where heirs and heiresses.

In 2013, Chey was convicted on charges of embezzling corporate funds for personal use. He was sentenced to four years in prison but was released with a special pardon in August 2015.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)