Anchor: Prosecutors are searching for the whereabouts of Chung Tae-soo, the former head of the now-defunct Hanbo Group, who stands accused of embezzling billions of won in funds from a school where he served as chairman of the board. This comes after his son, who had been in hiding for more than two decades, was extradited to South Korea.
Choi You Sun has more.

Report: Chung Han-keun, who was implicated in the now-defunct Hanbo Group's bribery and embezzlement scandal in the late 1990s, has been apprehended and extradited to South Korea after 21 years on the run.

He is the fourth son of the group's former chairman Chung Tae-soo, who was convicted of handing out massive bribes to lawmakers and officials to help Hanbo Group, once the country's second-largest steel conglomerate, fend off billions of dollars of debt.

The younger Chung is accused of embezzling 32-point-two billion won from a group subsidiary and stashing the money in a Swiss bank account.

He fled South Korea while under investigation by prosecutors in 1998 and is known to have lived in Canada, the U.S. and Ecuador under fake identities.

After he was repatriated to South Korea on Saturday following his apprehension in Panama earlier in the week, Chung told prosecutors that his father died last year in Ecuador, but they suspect he could be lying.

The prosecution said they are still verifying the claims, as well as the elder Chung's possible whereabouts.

He is currently believed to be hiding in Kyrgyzstan. 

The former Hanbo Group chief fled the country in 2007 during his appeals trial on charges of embezzling over seven billion won of educational funds from a school where he was the chairman of the board.

If he is brought in he will have to serve out a three-and-a-half-year sentence. 

The Hanbo Group scandal is remembered as one of the largest bribery cases in the country resulting in nearly a dozen people standing trial, including then-President Kim Young-sam's son and several presidential aides.

The conglomerate collapsed under five-point-six billion U.S. dollars of debt during the Asian financial crisis in the late 90s.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.