People Power Party "Never lent accounts... Prosecution must take responsibility for false report incident"
Democratic Party "'Deutsche Motors stock manipulation' case under trial... Stop distorting the essence"
Yoon Seok-yeol, the presidential candidate of the People Power Party, and his wife Kim Geon-hee, CEO of Kobana Contents, are making a public apology regarding allegations of false credentials on December 26 last year at the party headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@
[Asia Economy Reporter Yoon Seul-gi] As allegations of stock price manipulation involving Kim Gun-hee, spouse of Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party's presidential candidate, continue to emerge, the political tension between the ruling and opposition parties is intensifying. The People Power Party claimed that there are "errors" in the indictment related to Kim's stock price manipulation, while the Democratic Party of Korea sharply criticized this as "nonsense sophistry," urging them to "stop distorting the essence of the stock price manipulation case."
Lee Yang-su, senior spokesperson for the People Power Party, issued a statement on the 24th, saying, "We have clearly confirmed that there are errors in the list of crimes attached to the Deutsche Motors indictment, and all media reports based on this are false," adding, "Kim Gun-hee consistently explained that from January to May 2010, she entrusted trading to CEO Lee and delegated it, and this fact is recorded in the securities firm's audio recordings."
Earlier, on the 23rd, according to Hankyoreh Newspaper and MBC, based on the list of crimes attached to the indictment of former Deutsche Motors Chairman Kwon Oh-soo and others, it was reported that besides the initially known accounts, there are other stock price manipulation accounts, and that besides the known stock price manipulation operator CEO Lee, the manipulation was entrusted to other participants. Additionally, the list of crimes reportedly includes 284 suspicious transactions related to Kim's market manipulation.
In response, Senior Spokesperson Lee stated, "The Kim Gun-hee account listed in the list of crimes, which traded from October 28, 2010, to January 5, 2011, is a Mirae Asset Daewoo account," and claimed, "All transactions were directly ordered by Kim via phone to the Mirae Asset Daewoo branch staff."
He continued, "The Mirae Asset Daewoo audio recordings and the IP addresses of the branch terminals can be verified by the prosecution," adding, "The staff member who took the phone orders directly from Kim and executed the trades has been identified, so the facts can be immediately confirmed." He emphasized that all transaction funds were Kim's own money and that she never lent this account to anyone.
Senior Spokesperson Lee also pointed out that classifying Kim's account as involved in wash trading was incorrect. Wash trading refers to a practice where the parties buying and selling stocks collude in advance on prices and quantities to unfairly raise prices. He argued, "The transactions between Kim's account and another person's account were all conducted solely by CEO Lee, and thus were mistakenly classified as wash trading. Kim and CEO Lee traded separately."
Lee added, "Even after two years of investigation, the prosecution submitted data with significant errors in the list of crimes to the Democratic Party, and they must take responsibility for this major misinformation incident," and called for a strong request to amend the indictment.
The Democratic Party's campaign task force for current issues responded by calling it a "ridiculous claim." The task force issued a statement that day, saying, "The People Power Party claims to have confirmed some errors in the indictment's list of crimes and demands the prosecution take responsibility. It is questionable whether such an absurd claim really comes from a presidential candidate's campaign team led by a former Prosecutor General of the Republic of Korea."
The task force further stated, "The 'Deutsche Motors stock price manipulation' case is currently in trial," adding, "It is up to Kim herself to prove her innocence in court, not for the campaign to spout nonsense sophistry to the media on behalf of the accused. Stop distorting the essence of the stock price manipulation case."
Moreover, the task force said, "As stated yesterday, stock price manipulation is unrelated to 'whether there was a loss or the method of ordering.' Such explanations would only make millions of stock investors laugh," urging, "If the People Power Party's claim that the media reports are false is true, then it is Kim's fault for not cooperating with the prosecution's investigation from the start. If it was a legitimate transaction, then boldly disclose the stock account."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
