The Marmot’s Hole

9 Comments

1. gbevers
   Posted January 11, 2008 at 4:05 pm | Permalink

   What is the bullshit legal excuse the prosecution is using to ban Mr. Grayken from leaving the country or can Korea’s prosecution put a travel ban on anyone they do not like? I think the travel ban was used to punish Mr. Grayken for daring to testify for the defense. Or maybe the prosecution just wanted to show the world that they have the power to do it, which is just as silly.

   In Korea, it seems that people indicted for a crime are punished if they dare proclaim their innocence, and now it seems that even witnesses for the defense are also punished for daring to testify.

   Regardless of whatever silly excuse Korea may come up with, I think it is pretty clear to the international business community that Lone Star has been vilified and harassed in Korea not for any specific wrongdoing but mainly for being a foreign company that dared to make big profits in Korea, which is something Koreans do not like.

   Through the way it has dealt with Lone Star, Korea has showed the world just how xenophobic, discriminatory, and distorted its concepts of capitalism really are.

2. dogbertt
   Posted January 11, 2008 at 4:09 pm | Permalink

   Agreed.

   But on the other hand, it was reported widely in the press earlier last year that Mr. Grayken stated he would never set foot in Korea to testify as he knew he would certainly be banned from leaving Korea were he to do so.

   What made him change his mind?

3. R. Elgin
   Posted January 11, 2008 at 4:23 pm | Permalink

   . . . canal fever?

4. dogbertt
   Posted January 11, 2008 at 4:49 pm | Permalink

   LOL

5. globalvillageidiot
   Posted January 11, 2008 at 4:55 pm | Permalink

   How could he not have known this would happen?

6. SomeguyinKorea
   Posted January 11, 2008 at 5:15 pm | Permalink

   That’s it, the foreigner advisor hasn’t even begun working yet and they’re already spreading unfounded accusations of favoritism against him. Pathetic.

7. judge judy
   Posted January 12, 2008 at 9:15 am | Permalink

   What made him change his mind?

   he’s gotta close the sale.

   i highly doubt the ban was a surprise to grayken and the lonestar team. in fact, it may be more of the local press spinning agreed upon terms of return to make it look like something other than what it really is.

8. WangKon936
   Posted January 12, 2008 at 10:00 am | Permalink

   I had lunch with a Korean American attorney that was actually retained a few times by Lone Star. This guy also represented Korean store owners on a probono basis. Anyways, he said that Lone Star did everything by the book and that the charges were bogus by Korean beaurocrats who don’t like to see foreigners make so much money through financial engineering.

   Another Korean private equity friend and I joked that if we did the same thing Lone Star did we won’t get prosecuted because we’re Korean. Hahahaha.

   I bet you ex-Carlye Michael Kim of MK Funds won’t get the royal treatment that John Grayken got. He didn’t when he sold KorAm Bank and made Carlye a shit load of money.

9. WangKon936
   Posted January 12, 2008 at 10:04 am | Permalink

   FYI,

   Michael Kim is my hero…

   http://seoulover.blogs.com/wes.....finger.pdf