OSAKA -- Failed credit union Kansai Kogin raised more than 15 billion yen in additional capital in 1999 and early 2000 without telling potential investors that it was facing financial difficulties, sources close to the credit union said Wednesday.
Seven former executives of the Osaka-based union, which primarily served Korean residents in the Kansai area before it went bust in December 2000, were arrested last week over allegedly questionable lending practices.
One of the seven, former Kansai Kogin Chairman Lee Hui Gon, 84, launched the recapitalization program in January 1999 after failing to put the credit union's books in order, sources said.