The prosecution concluded Thursday that Chung Tae-soo, former head of the now-defunct Hanbo Group, died in December in Ecuador, where he was hiding after fleeing South Korea while standing trial on embezzlement charges.

His death came to light as Chung Han-keun, a son of Chung, was extradited to South Korea in June after he was captured in Panama following 21 years of living overseas to escape a corruption charge.

The prosecution said the Ecuadorean government had confirmed as authentic a document proving Chung's death that Han-keun submitted to the Korean prosecution during its probe.

Prosecutors have been verifying the testimony by Han-keun about his father's death. Separately, they identified that Chung's death was registered at Ecuador's immigration agency and an office of residents' information.

They also secured footage of Chung's funeral and pictures showing the scene of putting his body into a coffin. Those pictures were sent to family members living in Korea to inform them of his death.

Hanbo Group, once the 14th-largest conglomerate, declared bankruptcy in January 1997 due to mounting debt.

Chung, then-group chairman, was found guilty of bribing dozens of politicians and bankers to pressure banks to extend huge loans to his group.

He fled South Korea in May 2007 while standing trial for embezzling some 7 billion won ($6.2 million) in funds from a college for which he served as a board chief.

In 2009, a local court sentenced Chung to a prison term of three and half years even though he was not in Korea.

Chung settled in Ecuador in 2010 with a disguised name, and he appears to have sought an oil exploration project there, the prosecution added.

Following his death, it will be impossible for the tax agency to retrieve some 222.5 billion won in back taxes.

Han-keun, the fourth son of Chung, faces allegations that he embezzled 32.2 billion won from a subsidiary of Hanbo Group and stashed it in a secret Switzerland-based bank account. He fled Korea in June 1998.

The prosecution and the tax agency said they will seek to retrieve secret assets Han-keun hid overseas. He has not paid 29.3 billion won in state tax so far. (Yonhap)