CHEY TAE WON
South Korea
Chey, the nephew of the founder of SK Group, one of Korea's largest chaebols, spent seven months in prison last year after being convicted of securities and accounting fraud. He has since returned to the group as chairman of oil-refining affiliate SK Corp., but Chey faces a battle at a shareholders' meeting slated for next month. Minority shareholders, including foreign investor Sovereign Asset Management, want to purge him from the board. Independent investors are angry that SK Corp.'s directors agreed to help rescue a financially troubled affiliate last year, despite their objections.

		The Mori Family Two brothers with different visions split a family empire in half Built to last The world's oldest family firm The Li Family Hong Kong's "Superman" Li Ka-shing is the richest man in Asia. Can his sons duplicate his dealmaking skills? The Sy Family Can Henry Sy's all-in-the-family approach handle the complexity of managing a retailing giant? The Ambani Family Despite the death of their patriarch, the Ambani family is bringing India's Reliance Group into the 21st century The Chearavanont Family Dhanin Chearavanont built his family seed shop into a multinational conglomerate, then risked everthing to save it during the 1997 economic crisis. Now, he's rebuilding again The Tsai Family Taking pains to be transparent at Taiwan's banking and finance colossus Hard Times for the Rich Many of Asia's powerful families have become targets for shareholders and prosecutors TIME Covers Asia's most powerful families on the cover of TIME

YASUO TAKEI
Japan
The founder of consumer-finance giant Takefuji Corp. has lost his job, his reputation—and perhaps his business. In December, Takei resigned as chairman after being arrested for allegedly ordering detectives and Takefuji employees to illegally wiretap the phones of journalists who had written critical articles. If found guilty, regulators may withdraw Takefuji's lending license. Takefuji's share price has fallen, and international credit-rating agencies have downgraded the company since the scandal broke.

ANTHONY SALIM
Indonesia
The Salims, once the favorites of dictator Suharto, had to surrender 90% of their empire to the government (in exchange for a bailout of Bank Central Asia) after the 1997 financial crisis. Anthony Salim, the current family chief, has been trying to stage a comeback, but an attempt to raise money by unloading a stake in Philippine telco PLDT fell apart in 2002 due to resistance from Salim's own managers. In December, the CEO of Salim's Indofood, the world's largest instant-noodle maker, resigned amid reports that she and Salim were fighting over the company's direction.

ROBERT KUOK
Hong Kong
The 80-year-old, Malaysian-born Kuok, one of Hong Kong's wealthiest tycoons, stirred up a hornets' nest last year when he tried to take his flagship Kerry Properties private. Minority shareholders balked at Kuok's offer to buy their shares at a price they argued was far below the value of the company. Quipped Hong Kong corporate-reform advocate David Webb: "We never gave Robert Kuok credit—for his sense of humor." When 56% of Kerry shareholders voted against the offer, Kuok shelved the privatization idea

KOO BON MOO
South Korea
Koo, chairman of LG Group, last month lost control of the chaebol's consumer-finance subsidiary, LG Card, when creditors stepped in to save it from bankruptcy. In recent years, LG Card issued credit cards to 40% of South Korea's population, but so many consumers defaulted that banks have been forced to craft a $4 billion rescue package. This month, LG Electronics said it would buy $130 million in LG Card bonds. One civic group has threatened to encourage share-holders to sue LG companies that help LG Card and then suffer losses, raising the question: Should sick companies be bailed out by healthy sister companies?