Prosecutors Indict Former CFO of Ananti Over Alleged Samsung Life Real Estate Backdoor Deal

The prosecution investigating allegations of real estate transaction corruption involving Ananti, a resort condo operator, and Samsung Life Insurance has indicted Ananti's former Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Mr. Lee, on charges of falsifying the company's accounting books.

According to the legal community on the 29th, the Fair Trade Investigation Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Jeong-seop) filed non-custodial charges against Mr. Lee the previous day for violations of the External Audit Act and the Capital Markets Act.

Prosecutor's Office [Image source=Yonhap News]

Mr. Lee is the younger brother of Ananti CEO Lee Man-gyu and was responsible for management and accounting tasks at the company. He is accused of fabricating the books to make it appear that there were no issues with accounting, including falsely reporting tens of billions of won in company funds as advance payments for expenses that could not be substantiated during 2015?2016.

The prosecution confirmed that the statute of limitations for these charges expires at the end of this month, so they proceeded to indict Mr. Lee first and temporarily suspended the statute of limitations for CEO Lee, who faces the same charges. The prosecution plans to continue the remaining investigation into CEO Lee's embezzlement, breach of trust charges, and allegations of real estate transaction corruption.

The prosecution launched the investigation following a report from the Financial Supervisory Service. The core suspicion is that kickbacks were exchanged during real estate transactions between Ananti and Samsung Life Insurance. In April 2009, Ananti purchased land and buildings in Songpa-gu, Seoul, for a total purchase price of 50 billion won.

Before making the final payment, in June of the same year, Ananti signed a contract to resell the property?planned to be developed into a 17-story above-ground and 7-story underground building?to Samsung Life Insurance under a completion condition. Through this, Ananti recorded sales of approximately 97 billion won, nearly double the purchase price, within two months.