Story highlights Authorities say 169 people are dead; 133 still missing 
 
 Owner is known as the "millionaire with no face," as he rarely appears in public 
 
 Hopes are fading for survivors with news that divers haven't found any air pockets 
 
 Devastated high school set to resume classes Thursday 
 
 South Korean authorities searched the offices of the company that owns the sunken ferry Sewol on Wednesday, prosecutors confirmed to CNN, broadening a criminal investigation that has already ensnared 11 members of the ill-fated ship's crew. 
 
 Investigators also searched the offices of 20 organizations affiliated with Cheonghaejin Marine Co. as well as the home of Yoo Byung-eun, a billionaire whose family appears to control the company, according to the semiofficial Yonhap News Agency. 
 
 Yoo is known in South Korea as the "millionaire with no face" because he rarely appears in public. According to major South Korean newspapers, he also has an artistic alter ego -- Ahae -- as a photographer who has won international acclaim. 
 
 His website appears to show Yoo taking pictures, but his face is not visible. 
 
 Through an investment vehicle and subsidiary, Yoo and his two sons control the shipping company that operated the ferry. Korean tax authorities say that under the family's ownership, the ferry company has been struggling and reported a loss last year. 
 
 Days after the ferry sank, the company sent out its president to apologize, but not Yoo -- who's had a brush with bad publicity before. 
 
 In 1987, more than 30 people from a religious group were found dead, bound and gagged in a factory outside of Seoul. Officials investigated the incident as a mass murder-suicide, and also investigated whether Yoo had any connection to the event, but determined he wasn't involved. 
 
 Prosecutors in the South Korean city of Busan are also investigating the private organization responsible for inspecting and certifying ships for the South Korean government, Yonhap reported. 
 
 Investigators are looking for any evidence of possible wrongdoing in relation to the Korean Register of Shipping's safety inspection of the Sewol, the news agency reported, citing an unnamed prosecutor. 
 
 The Sewol sank April 16 during a routine trip from Incheon to the resort island of Jeju . Among its 476 passengers and crew were more than 300 high school students on a field trip. 
 
 Authorities said Thursday the death toll had climbed to 169, leaving 133 people still missing. 
 
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 Photos: Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – A relative of a victim weeps as she and others stand on the deck of a boat during a visit to the site of the sunken Sewol ferry on April 15, 2015 -- one day before the one year anniversary of the disaster. Hide Caption 1 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – A relative hands out flowers to others on the deck of a boat during a visit to the site of the sunken ferry. More than 100 relatives of victims of South Korea's Sewol ferry disaster tearfully cast flowers into the sea. Hide Caption 2 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – A man hold a flower as he stands on the deck of a boat during a visit to the site of the sunken Sewol ferry, off the coast of South Korea's southern island of Jindo. Hide Caption 3 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – The mother of Sewol ferry disaster victim, Danwon High School student Lim Kyung-Bin, attends a rally to pay tribute to the victims of the ferry disaster on April 11, 2015, Seoul, South Korea. Hide Caption 4 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Relatives of victims of the Sewol ferry disaster march across a bridge over the Han river in Seoul on April 5, 2015. More than 200 people participated in the march from Ansan city. Many of them were the parents of the 250 students who died when the overloaded ferry sank off Jindo on April 16, 2014. Hide Caption 5 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Relatives of victims of the Sewol ferry hold portraits of victims during a rally on April 5, 2015 in Seoul. Relatives, students and citizens attended the vigil to pay tribute to the victims of the ferry disaster and demanded that the wreckage be salvaged. Hide Caption 6 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Sewol ferry captain Lee Joon-Seok was acquitted of murder, avoiding a death sentence, but was sentenced to 36 years in jail on November 11 for his role in the maritime disaster that killed more than 300. Hide Caption 7 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Shoes believed to belong to the missing and the deceased are on display at the harbor. Hide Caption 8 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Jindo harbor, where the search operation is based, has become a memorial for those who lost their lives. Yellow ribbons and photos are displayed as people come to pay their respects. Hide Caption 9 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – A joint government-civilian task force is still looking for the missing, but winter is fast approaching. Hide Caption 10 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Ten are still missing from tragic ferry sinking last April, which killed more than 300. Six months later, families are still waiting for their loved ones to be found. The parents of 16-year-old Huh Da-yoon, pictured, are among them. Hide Caption 11 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – The families of the ten who remain missing have been waiting in Jindo Indoor Gymnasium since the first day. Families can watch search mission in real time on a large monitor in the gym. Hide Caption 12 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – South Korean President Park Geun-hye weeps while delivering a speech to the nation about the sunken ferry Sewol at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, on Monday, May 19. More than 200 bodies have been found and nearly 100 people remain missing after the ferry sank April 16 off South Korea's southwest coast. Hide Caption 13 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Police in Seoul detain a protester during a march Saturday, May 17, for victims of the Sewol. Hide Caption 14 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – A girl in Seoul holds a candle during a service paying tribute to the victims of the Sewol on Wednesday, April 30. Hide Caption 15 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – People pay tribute to victims at a memorial altar in Ansan, South Korea, on Tuesday, April 29. Hide Caption 16 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – A police officer holds an umbrella for a relative of a missing ferry passenger Monday, April 28, in Jindo, South Korea. Hide Caption 17 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – South Korean Buddhists carry lanterns in a parade in Seoul on Saturday, April 26, to honor the memory of the dead and the safe return of the missing. Hide Caption 18 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Divers search for people in the waters near Jindo on April 26. Hide Caption 19 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – People in Ansan attend a memorial for the victims on April 26. Hide Caption 20 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – A diver jumps into the sea near the sunken ferry on Friday, April 25. Hide Caption 21 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – A relative of a passenger weeps while waiting for news of his missing loved one at a port in Jindo on April 25. Hide Caption 22 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – People attend a memorial for the victims at the Olympic Memorial Hall in Ansan on Thursday, April 24. Hide Caption 23 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Yellow ribbons honoring the victims flap in the wind as a hearse carrying a victim's body leaves Danwon High School in Ansan on April 24. Most of the people on board the ferry were high school students on their way to the resort island of Jeju. Hide Caption 24 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – People attend a memorial for the victims at Olympic Memorial Hall in Ansan. Hide Caption 25 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Search personnel dive into the sea on Wednesday, April 23. Hide Caption 26 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Flares light up the search area on Tuesday, April 22. Hide Caption 27 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – The sun sets over the site of the sunken ferry on April 22. Hide Caption 28 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – A relative of a ferry passenger prays as she waits for news in Jindo on April 22. Hide Caption 29 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – The search for victims continues April 22 in the waters of the Yellow Sea. Hide Caption 30 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Rescue workers in Jindo carry the body of a passenger on Monday, April 21. Hide Caption 31 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Divers jump into the water on April 21 to search for passengers near the buoys that mark the site of the sunken ferry. Hide Caption 32 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Search operations continue as flares illuminate the scene near Jindo on Sunday, April 20. Hide Caption 33 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Relatives of missing passengers grieve April 20 in Jindo. Hide Caption 34 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Relatives of passengers look out at the sea from Jindo on April 20. Hide Caption 35 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Police officers in Jindo stand guard Saturday, April 19, to prevent relatives of the ferry's missing passengers from jumping in the water. Some relatives said they will swim to the shipwreck site and find their missing family members by themselves. Hide Caption 36 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Family members of missing passengers hug as they await news of their missing relatives at Jindo Gymnasium on April 19. Hide Caption 37 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – South Korean Navy Ship Salvage Unit members prepare to salvage the sunken ferry and search for missing people on April 19. Hide Caption 38 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Lee Joon Suk, the captain of the Sewol, is escorted to the court that issued his arrest warrant Friday, April 18, in Mokpo, South Korea. Hide Caption 39 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – A woman cries as she waits for news on missing passengers April 18 in Jindo. Hide Caption 40 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – A searchlight illuminates the capsized ferry on Thursday, April 17. Hide Caption 41 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – A woman cries during a candlelight vigil at Danwon High School in Ansan, South Korea, on April 17. Hide Caption 42 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Family members of passengers aboard the sunken ferry gather at a gymnasium in Jindo on April 17. Hide Caption 43 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – The body of a victim is moved at a hospital in Mokpo on April 17. Hide Caption 44 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Relatives of a passenger cry at a port in Jindo on April 17 as they wait for news on the rescue operation. Hide Caption 45 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – South Korean coast guard members and rescue teams search for passengers at the site of the sunken ferry on April 17. Hide Caption 46 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – A relative of a passenger cries as she waits for news on Wednesday, April 16. Hide Caption 47 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Relatives check a list of survivors April 16 in Jindo. Hide Caption 48 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Rescue crews attempt to save passengers from the ferry on April 16. Hide Caption 49 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – A relative waits for a missing loved one at the port in Jindo. Hide Caption 50 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Parents at Danwon High School search for names of their children among the list of survivors. Ansan is a suburb of Seoul, the South Korean capital. Hide Caption 51 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Helicopters hover over the ferry as rescue operations continue April 16. Hide Caption 52 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – Officials escort rescued passengers April 16 in Jindo. Hide Caption 53 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – A passenger is helped onto a rescue boat on April 16. Hide Caption 54 of 55 Photos: South Korean ferry sinks – A passenger is rescued from the sinking ship on April 16. Hide Caption 55 of 55 
 
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 South Korean ferry rescue operation 
 
 Eleven members of the Sewol's crew, including its captain, have been arrested in connection with the disaster. 
 
 Capt. Lee Joon-seok and some other crew members have been criticized for failing to evacuate the sinking ship quickly and for giving orders for passengers to remain where they were. Lee has said he was worried about the cold water, strong currents and lack of rescue vessels. 
 
 Lee and others have also drawn public anger for leaving the ship while many passengers remained on board. 
 
 Authorities still do not know precisely what caused the incident. It did not appear that the ship was overloaded, according to figures provided by the company and the South Korean coast guard. But coast guard officials said investigators won't know for sure how much cargo the ship was carrying until it is salvaged. 
 
 Hopes fading 
 
 South Korean officials continue to call their operation a search-and-rescue mission, but hopes are fading that survivors may yet be found. 
 
 Some 700 divers are participating in the search, according to Ko Myung-suk, a spokesman for the joint task force coordinating the effort. He said 36 fishing boats were positioned around the area to prevent bodies being carried away by currents. 
 
 Rescue officials said Wednesday that divers have yet to find an air pocket on the third or fourth decks, where most of the passenger bedrooms and the ship's cafeteria are located. 
 
 Rescuers haven't found a single survivor since 174 people were rescued the day the ship sank one week ago. 
 
 Many of the bodies pulled from the ferry have come from bedrooms on the capsized ship's fourth deck, said Ko. 
 
 Divers had expected to find passengers inside the third-floor cafeteria but failed to find any, the South Korean coast guard said. 
 
 While divers still have many rooms to search, no air pockets have been found on either deck, authorities said. 
 
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 Students remembered 
 
 Grief over the sinking has spread across the Korean Peninsula. Even South Korea's nemesis, North Korea, sent condolences Wednesday. 
 
 More than two-thirds of those on board the ferry were students from Danwon High School in Ansan, an hour's drive south of Seoul. 
 
 On Wednesday, some of their faces stared out from photos amid a huge bank of white flowers at a basketball area in Ansan that has been converted into a temporary memorial. 
 
 A permanent memorial is being planned for a park in Ansan. 
 
 Hundreds of people filed through the memorial Wednesday, passing about 50 large wreaths on their way to the wall of flowers and pictures. 
 
 Somber music played as visitors, including friends and relatives, passed quietly among the tributes. Some wept. 
 
 One man, from Seoul, has no ties to the school but came to grieve for the young lives lost. 
 
 "I have a daughter," the man told CNN's Nic Robertson. "I think of her alone in black waters. It's just so terrible. I'm angry that I couldn't do anything. So helpless." 
 
 The disaster has taken a devastating toll on the high school, where classes are due to resume Thursday. 
 
 The school is missing most of its sophomores and a vice principal who was rescued from the ferry but found dead two days after the sinking. He'd apparently hanged himself from a tree. 
 
 Lee Seung-min, 17, said one of her closest girlfriends is among the missing. She said she still holds out hope that her friend will return despite the increasingly slim chances of finding survivors. 
 
 Before the field trip, the two girls had talked about what universities they might attend, she said. 

 JINDO, South Korea — As Navy divers recovered the bodies of dozens of teenagers drowned waiting for a rescue of their doomed ferry, South Korea has begun a national bout of hand-wringing over the country’s tendency to overlook safety precautions in its quest for economic success. 
 
 With a mounting list of errors that appeared to have contributed to the disaster, maritime experts, the news media and regular citizens venting their anger on social media have begun to question what they describe as inadequate safety precautions and often lax regulation of businesses. 
 
 On Tuesday, an opposition lawmaker released data showing that the ship was carrying three times its recommended maximum cargo, though it remained unclear if that could have helped destabilize it. 
 
 In addition, President Park Geun-hye, who has been withering in her criticism of the crew, has also argued that cozy relations between regulators and shippers may have contributed to the catastrophe, one of South Korea’s worst in peacetime. The prime minister cited specific problems that might have been addressed by better regulation, including suspicions that renovations to add more sleeping cabins made the ship top-heavy and more likely to keel over. 
 
 Photo 
 
 The country’s top newspapers reflected the growing sense of anger, and shock, over what they suggested was a lack of proper oversight. “Are we a safe society or a third-rate people?” read one editorial headline in the newspaper Joong-Ang. And the daily newspaper Dong-A ran an editorial titled “Cry Korea,” in which it argued that Ms. Park should live up to her campaign promise to run an “administration of safety.” 
 
 For years, South Koreans called their country “a land of disasters” after a lack of regulation or a cavalier attitude toward safety, or both, were at least partly blamed for a string of accidents. 
 
 In 1993, an Asiana Airlines jet slammed into a hill not far from the site of the ferry accident, killing 68 people aboard. Later that year, an overloaded ferry sank, killing 292. In 1994, a bridge collapsed in Seoul, killing 32. In 1995, about 100 died in a gas explosion, and roughly 500 in the collapse of a department store in Seoul that was weakened after the owner violated building safety codes by adding a swimming pool at the top. Two years later, a Korean Air jet crashed in Guam, killing 228. 
 
 With no large-scale disaster reported since arson caused a subway fire that killed 192 people in 2003, South Korea appeared to have put its curse behind it — and the country appeared to be moving past its culture of “ppali ppali,” or “hurry hurry,” loosely translated as a tendency to justify cutting corners to get work finished quickly. 
 
 Now, many Koreans are expressing shame at how far their country still needs to go to address safety concerns, adding to the grief and anger that has gripped the country since the accident last Wednesday. 
 
 On Tuesday, anger at the crew’s apparent missteps in the evacuation only grew as investigators said the crew was not even the first to notify the authorities that the ship was in trouble. The first call, they said, came from a high school student who called the police. 
 
 “Save us! We’re on a ship and I think it’s sinking,” the student is quoted as saying, according to the South Korean national news agency, Yonhap. The boy is among the missing. 
 
 As of Wednesday afternoon, the death toll had risen to 150, but 152 were still missing. 
 
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 Analysts said the ferry accident appeared to be a reminder that South Korea did not shed its easy acceptance of loose regulatory enforcement even as it became a high-tech economic powerhouse flooding the world markets with Samsung smartphones. The culture of lax enforcement is such a given, experts say, that government officials consider working in public safety a second-rate job. 
 
 In South Korea, more than 31,000 people, including 3,000 students, die every year in accidents, accounting for 12.8 percent of the country’s total annual deaths, the highest rate among major developed nations. 
 
 Those episodes include everything from car accidents to fires, and it is unclear how much can be attributed to a lack of focus on safety. But there is a general acknowledgment in hypercompetitive South Korea that success is often measured by how quickly and cheaply a job is done, and that spending too much time and resources trying to follow rules is sometimes seen as losing a competitive edge. 
 
 “The country has grown so rapidly that a lot of shortcuts have been made, so that it’s waiting for an accident to happen,” said Tom Coyner, a member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea and the author of “Doing Business in Korea.” 
 
 Kim Chang-je, a professor of navigation science at Korea Maritime and Ocean University, said the complaints appeared to be true of the ferry business. “We have the safety regulations and systems that were similar to global norms,” he said. “But they are not properly enforced.” 
 
 He and other experts pointed out a host of issues they said undermined safety on the ferry, including that the crew had several contract workers, who might have been less familiar with the ship than a regular crew. 
 
 Investigators have also said the decision by the company that owned the ferry, Cheonghaejin Marine Company, to add more sleeping cabins probably undermined the ship’s ability to regain its balance after tilting. 
 
 The Korea Register of Shipping approved the change to the ship’s design after advising Cheonghaejin Marine to carry less cargo and more ballast water to compensate for the loss of stability. But on Tuesday, Kim Young-rok, an opposition lawmaker, said that when the ship left Incheon, it carried 3,608 tons of cargo, three times the recommended maximum. The company’s audit data showed it has depended increasingly upon cargo to compensate for declining passenger revenues. 
 
 Prosecutors were investigating whether the ferry carried enough ballast water to accommodate the extra cargo. One of the two first mates arrested on Tuesday told reporters that when he tried to right the ship after tilting, the ballast “didn’t work.” 
 
 Prosecutors raided Korea Register’s headquarters on Tuesday and barred the head of Cheonghaejin Marine, as well as the company’s family owners, from leaving the country. 
 
 It has also become clear that the captain most likely violated national navigational guidelines when he left the ship in the control of the least experienced ship’s mate through a waterway notorious for its rapid currents. The guidelines stipulate a captain should be in control in busy or dangerous waters. 
 
 The ferry also had no extra captain, as ships often do when they are on long overnight voyages so the two can take turns in the bridge, experts said. 
 
 Experts say they suspect some of the problems with the ship resulted from lax enforcement of safety standards made possible by ties among the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, the Korea Shipping Association and shipping companies. 
 
 The shipping association is a lobby for shipping companies and is financed by them. But it is also charged with inspecting ships for safety measures, such as a proper and balanced stowage of cargo. In addition, many senior officials from the ministry — which is supposed to oversee the association’s enforcement — also join the association after they retire. 
 
 “We will never be able to expect safety regulations to be properly enforced until the shipping association becomes independent,” said Jung Yun-chul, another maritime safety expert at Korea Maritime and Ocean University. 
 
 In an editorial on Monday, The Chosun Ilbo, the nation’s largest newspaper, summed up the sense that with more care for safety, the calamity might have been avoided. 
 
 “In Korea, people who insist on abiding by basic rules are often considered annoying or inflexible, while those who are adept at dodging them are seen as smart,” it said. “But the country is full of such smart people, and the result has been catastrophic.”
– Hope for more survivors in the South Korea ferry disaster is fading after divers were unable to find air pockets on the ship's third and fourth floors; that's where they believed passengers might have been, CNN reports. Authorities have now recovered 156 bodies, and hundreds of people gathered at a memorial today in a basketball arena in the city of Ansan. Photographs of teen victims were displayed on an altar as visitors—who included relatives, students, and officials—wept, the New York Times reports. Still, the effort remains a rescue operation, officials have said. South Koreans labeled their country a "land of disasters" following a string of incidents over the course of a decade beginning in 1993; they included a plane crash, another ferry sinking, a gas explosion, and the collapses of a bridge and a department store, the Times reports. Many had believed that period to be over, and they're furious at what appears to be continuing disregard for safety. "In Korea, people who insist on abiding by basic rules are often considered annoying or inflexible, while those who are adept at dodging them are seen as smart,” says the Chosun Ilbo newspaper, via the Times. “But the country is full of such smart people, and the result has been catastrophic.”