Daewoo Motors was first established as National Motor in 1937 and didn't become known as Daewoo Motors until 1982. The holding company Daewoo Group hit financial meltdown, crisis and scandal in 1998 due to the Asian Financial Crisis. Daewoo Motors is now defunct and sold off the remainder of its assets in 2011.
In 1998, when an economic crisis forced practically everyone to cutback, the Daewoo Group instead bought up more firms, adding 14 new companies to a large list of already 275 subsidiaries. In that year, the company recorded sales of $51 billion and recorded losses of $458 million.
By taking on 40% more debt, Daewoo essentially nailed their own coffin, and went bankrupt in 1999 as South Korea's second largest conglomerate with debts just over $84 billion and interests in more than 100 countries.
Founder of the group, Kim Woo Jung, fled to France to escape trial, but was arrested upon his return to Korea in 2005 and charged with masterminding $43.4 billion of accounting fraud, illegally borrowing $10.3 billion, and smuggling $3.2 billion out of the country. He was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment after being found guilty of embezzlement and fraud.