Financial Services Commission Accelerates Sanctions on Financial Firms Related to 'Lime·Optimus' Scandal

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] Sanctions on financial companies involved in the Lime and Optimus fund scandals are expected to accelerate.

On the 27th, the Financial Services Commission announced that it discussed the direction of sanctions against financial companies that sold defective funds, including securities firms and banks that sold Lime, as well as Discovery and Optimus sellers, and decided to prioritize handling issues with narrowed disputes. Each sanction measure will be handled separately based on violations under the Capital Markets Act and the Financial Company Governance Act.

A Financial Services Commission official explained, "Regarding violations under the Capital Markets Act, we plan to proceed with deliberations according to the current schedule without delay and reach a swift conclusion," adding, "for violations of the obligation to establish internal control standards under the Governance Act, we will comprehensively judge after legal review of judicial decisions and comparative deliberations on related agenda items."

Previously, the Lime scandal occurred in July 2019 when Lime Asset Management was suspected of manipulating returns through illicit trading of convertible bonds (CB) of KOSDAQ companies, causing the stock prices in funds managed by Lime Asset Management to plummet and triggering a suspension of redemptions.

The Optimus scandal involved Optimus Asset Management collecting over 1 trillion won from investors through fund subscription solicitations last year, deceiving investors, and investing in bonds of insolvent companies, resulting in massive losses.