South Korean prosecutors said they had indicted 34 former executives and auditors of bankrupt Daewoo Group for allegedly rigging the conglomerate’s financial records between 1997 and 1999.

Prosecutors said the individuals manipulated financial statements to obtain $8 billion in bank loans between 1997 and 1999.

However, prosecutors canceled an earlier decision to indict former Daewoo Group chairman Kim Woo-choong, due to their inability to bring him in for questioning, Kang Kap-jin, a spokesman for the Supreme Prosecutors Office, told Reuters.

The former chairman has been spotted in Nice, according to local reports, where he reportedly owns a luxury villa, and in the Sudan, where the conglomerate engaged in major construction projects. Kim was also reported to have been spotted at a golf course in Palm Beach, FL.

Prosecutors said that under the orders of the former chairman the indicted individuals hid the company’s losses to persuade banks to make new loans as Daewoo neared insolvency in 1997 and 1998.

Daewoo’s accounts were inflated through asset swaps within the group and through the double counting of sales. A London-based company was used to subsidize unprofitable business overseas, prosecutors said.

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