Hyundai executives said at the time that the assignments did not foreshadow a creative review.
He was one of eight former Hyundai executives and government officials indicted so far in the scandal.
The field will be narrowed to three or four finalists after meetings next week with Hyundai executives; the finalists will then work on a project.
Hyundai executives, for example, were arrested for kidnapping union organizers and hiring people to beat up strikers with baseball bats and steel rods.
But Hyundai executives did tell Halla's creditors that Hyundai continued to support Halla.
But during this campaign, a former Hyundai executive accused the younger Mr. Chung of manipulating stock prices in 1999.
Two senior Hyundai executives were charged with having ordered gangsters to kidnap a labor organizer to deter him from forming a union.
Hyundai executives have said the financially pressed group no longer has the funds.
Airport surveillance footage shows Lee, accompanied by two fellow Hyundai executives, boarding a plane.
Hyundai executives say they gave their flagship sedan a new name because the car was so different from the XG series that it replaced.