Lee Dong-chae, chairman of EcoPro Group (64), was sentenced to prison and detained in court in the appellate trial on charges of unfairly gaining profits through undisclosed information.
On the 11th, the Criminal Division 5 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judges Seo Seung-ryeol, Ahn Seung-hoon, Choi Moon-soo) sentenced Chairman Lee, who was indicted for violating the Capital Markets and Financial Investment Business Act, to 2 years in prison, a fine of 2.2 billion KRW, and a confiscation of over 1.1 billion KRW.
Five current and former executives of EcoPro and its affiliate EcoPro BM, who were indicted together, were all sentenced to suspended prison terms or fines.
The court stated, "Chairman Lee is the head of the company and the ultimate person responsible, so his responsibility is heavier than that of the other defendants," adding, "If Chairman Lee had thoroughly directed and supervised in advance, the crimes of other executives could have been prevented."
Furthermore, “Since a prison sentence has been imposed, and there is a high risk of flight, he is detained in court,” and added, “The use of undisclosed important information is a crime that is strictly punished, so reflect on your actions.”
Earlier, Chairman Lee was indicted without detention in May last year on charges of buying shares in advance through a nominee account before information related to EcoPro BM’s mid- to long-term supply contracts was disclosed on the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure system from January 2020 to September 2021, and then reselling them to gain a price difference of over 1.1 billion KRW.
The first trial found most of the charges guilty but sentenced him to a suspended prison term considering factors such as the return of unfair profits.
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