Suspicions of Involvement of Moon Jae-in Administration Officials Likely to Be Exposed
[Asia Economy reporters Seongpil Jo and Byungdon Yoo] With Lee Bok-hyun, Governor of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), hinting at the possibility of reinvestigation into the Lime and Optimus cases, cooperation between the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office's Joint Financial and Securities Crime Investigation Unit (Joint Investigation Unit) and the FSS is expected to intensify.
According to the legal and financial sectors on the 9th, the cooperation between the two institutions is likely to involve the FSS utilizing its special investigative authority to obtain internal documents from financial companies without a search warrant, conducting investigations, and then referring cases to the prosecution. There is also speculation that the prosecution, while reviewing already conducted investigations retrospectively, may request additional cooperation, which the FSS would support.
The Lime and Optimus scandals originated during the Moon Jae-in administration when fund management companies invested in insolvent companies and engaged in Ponzi-like schemes, leading to suspension of redemptions and causing numerous victims. These cases, which began with the suspension of redemptions, escalated into allegations involving political and government figures during the prosecution's investigation. Among those implicated were multiple Democratic Party lawmakers and former and current Blue House officials. The opposition party at the time, the People Power Party, labeled the incidents as a "power-type gate," reflecting the significant impact.
Prosecutorial investigations targeting the ruling party and the Blue House were also conducted. In the Lime fund case, Democratic Party lawmakers Ki Dong-min and Lee Soo-jin, as well as former Blue House Senior Secretary for Political Affairs Kang Ki-jung, were investigated on suspicions of illegal political fund acceptance. In the Optimus fund case, documents surfaced suggesting involvement of Moon Jae-in administration figures, and former Democratic Party leader Lee Nak-yeon was accused of receiving support for election campaign copier fees from Optimus. However, investigations into these individuals ended without notable results, either being closed without charges or stalling repeatedly. The legal community cites reasons for the lack of progress at the time as ▲the abolition of the Joint Investigation Unit ▲changes in the command line ▲and accountability issues within the FSS.
With Jang Ha-won, CEO of Discovery Fund, being arrested on the 8th, this case is also turning toward figures from the previous administration. Discovery Fund was sold through major banks including Industrial Bank of Korea and securities firms between 2017 and 2019. Due to issues such as incomplete sales by the management company and poor fund management, redemptions were suspended in March last year, causing damages amounting to approximately 250 billion KRW. Police investigations revealed that Jang's older brother, Jang Ha-sung, former Ambassador to China, invested about 6 billion KRW in Discovery Fund. It is also known that former Blue House Policy Chief Kim Sang-jo and former Bareunmirae Party lawmaker Chae Yi-bae invested in this fund. When the police applied for a pre-arrest warrant for CEO Jang last month, they stated, "We applied for the warrant to investigate various matters including possible involvement of higher-ups. If necessary, investigations into these individuals will also be conducted."
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