The chairman of the Business Innovation Committee was arrested. The Seoul Southern District Court conducted a warrant examination of Kim, who is suspected of violating the Capital Markets Act, from 2 p.m. on the 22nd. He was subsequently arrested at 1 a.m. on the 23rd.
At around 10 minutes after the incident, the prosecution issued an arrest warrant, citing "the risk of evidence destruction or flight risk." According to the prosecution, Kim was involved in a rival company, SM Entertainment, in the process of acquiring the company in February last year.
The company is suspected of manipulating SM Entertainment's stock price to set and fix the price of its shares higher than Hive's tender offer price of 120,000 won in order to sabotage the company's tender offer for Hive.
In particular, the prosecution alleges that Kakao engaged in fraudulent conduct with One Asia Partners, a private equity fund (PEF) management company, for a total of four days from Feb. 16-17 and 27-28 last year.
The prosecution is investigating Kim for allegedly managing about 240 billion won with the group and buying SM Entertainment shares at high prices 553 times.
The only thing listed is that he is suspected of being involved in purchasing 130 billion won worth of SM Entertainment shares in one day.
Initially, Kim strongly denied the allegations.
During the summons investigation, he denied the allegations, saying, "It is true that I was informed of the matter of purchasing SM Entertainment shares on the market and approved it, but I have not heard about the specific method and process of the purchase."
On the 18th, the day after the warrant was requested, at the Kakao Group Emergency Council, the group said, "We cannot provide a detailed explanation because this is an ongoing case, but the current allegations are not true," and
"I believe that the truth will eventually come out because I have never ordered or condoned any illegal acts," he said. However, Kim's claim of innocence was not accepted.
When requesting an arrest warrant on the 17th, the prosecution expressed confidence that they had secured "sufficient personal and physical evidence relating to Kim's conspiracy to manipulate stock prices."
At the court where the warrant review was held that day, both the prosecution and the defense lawyers were engaged in fierce arguments over whether Kim should be arrested.
The prosecution argued for the need to arrest and detain Kim through a 200-page presentation.
In addition, Lee Jun-ho, the investment banker of Kakao Entertainment, testified that Kim had made the final decision regarding the stock market purchase of SM Entertainment.
The Kim side also cited the past allegations made by Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-Yeong in connection with the Samsung BioLogics scandal.
The defense team, including Jeonju District Court Chief Justice Han Seung-sun, who was in charge of the case and won the dismissal of the arrest warrant for the chairman, aggressively refuted the claims of the prosecution.
The prosecution requested that the warrant be dismissed on the grounds that there was little risk of Kim fleeing as he is the head of a large company, and that the testimony of Director Lee was reliable.
The Financial Supervisory Service's special prosecutors' office has been investigating the alleged manipulation of Kakao's stock price since October and November of last year.
The investigation began in earnest when the legal police sent a letter of recommendation to indict Kim and other Kakao executives to the prosecution. The prosecution then investigated an office in the Kakao Group headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, called Kakao Panggyo Ajito.
The company seized and searched the documents, and on the 9th of this month, eight months later, Kim was summoned privately for questioning. Bae Jaehyun, CEO of Kakao Investment, was also arrested and indicted in November last year on the same charges as Kim.
He was released on bail in March this year. He is currently undergoing trial without being detained. He is accused of conspiring with Kakao to mobilize 110 billion won in fund funds and buying SM Entertainment shares at high prices.
Mr. Ji, CEO of One Asia Partners, a bet equity fund management company, was also arrested and indicted in April, but was released on bail on the 22nd.
Currently, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office is investigating the price manipulation case of SM Entertainment as well as the TV series production company Kakao Entertainment.
Suspicions of high-value acquisitions, suspicions of concentrating calls on ride-hailing service Kakao Mobility, suspicions of embezzlement and breach of trust by executives of Kakao blockchain platform "Clayton"
He is in charge of a total of four cocoa-related investigations.
2024/07/23 05:19 KST
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