Lone Star Funds Now Owes Korean Government $27 Million and One Executive

Lone Star Funds' chairman John Grayken ain't happy today.

It doesn't appear Dallas-based Lone Star Funds will ever forget its trip to South Korea. Today a court there ruled that the Harwood Street-based investment firm, once the largest foreign investor in South Korea, owes $27 million in that case involving Lone Star Funds' purchase in 2003 and proposed sale of Korean Exchange Bank. Also, the court sentenced Paul Yoo, Lone Star's Korean unit boss, to five years in prison.

Which ain't sitting well with Lone Star's chairman, John Grayken. In a statement released today he says, "Lone Star is very disappointed in the court's ruling. Lone Star maintains that there is simply no credible evidence to support the court's findings. Lone Star will appeal this decision and is confident that it will be reversed." But if it's not, says here, "the Friday verdict, if upheld in higher courts, will undermine Lone Star's repeated claims that it was victimized by politically motivated prosecutors who it said was capitalizing on widespread public sentiment against foreign investors." --Robert Wilonsky