Serving as Nextera Operations Director since early 2022
Resigned from Geumyang last May... Investigation on dual employment ban
Need to examine violation of Financial Investment Services Act for recommending secondary battery stocks
Park Sunhyuk "No issues found in Financial Supervisory Service audit"
The financial authorities are investigating whether Park Soon-hyuk, former PR director of Geumyang, who gained fame as the so-called ‘Battery Uncle’ for recommending secondary battery stocks, violated the Capital Markets Act by holding concurrent positions and causing conflicts of interest.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) on the 11th, they are examining whether Park Soon-hyuk violated the Capital Markets Act and the Financial Company Governance Act. An FSS official stated, "Park resigned from Geumyang in May, and we have requested documents from the company to verify the facts."
The key issue is whether a conflict of interest occurred. Under the Financial Company Governance Act, financial investment businesses are restricted from having their executives hold concurrent positions in affiliated companies or others where there is a high possibility of conflicts of interest, in cases prescribed by Presidential Decree, to prevent such conflicts.
From early 2022, Park served as head of the Nextera Investment Discretionary Division while simultaneously performing PR director duties at Geumyang IR. However, after controversies arose over Geumyang’s inadequate disclosures, he stepped down from the PR director position and submitted his resignation to Nextera Investment Discretionary on September 4.
Park maintains that concurrently handling asset management and PR duties is not problematic. He claimed, "In 2022, Nextera Investment Discretionary and Geumyang signed an IR agency contract, and I concurrently handled the head of operations and IR duties. During this process, we sought legal advice and confirmed there was no issue with the concurrent roles." He added, "The ongoing FSS audit has also confirmed no problems. The reason for managing both roles is loyalty to clients I have managed for 20 years since 2004, involving only three accounts with a total investment of 800 million KRW, which is a very small scale."
The FSS is also investigating whether there was a violation of Article 45, Paragraph 2 of the Capital Markets Act. Financial investment businesses such as asset management firms and securities companies must report to compliance officers in advance if they mention specific stocks on platforms like YouTube. If the mention is for promotional purposes, the advertisement must comply with the Capital Markets Act.
If Park was the Geumyang IR PR director when recommending battery stocks, it must be examined whether the recommendation itself violated the Capital Markets Act. However, the FSS did not confirm whether Park purchased stocks first through advisory client accounts before recommending them to individual investors on YouTube.
Regarding this, Park denied allegations of fraudulent unfair trading, stating, "Although I could have greatly increased advisory discretionary contracts by leveraging my reputation, I did not acquire any additional accounts beyond the three, and I did not purchase a single share of Geumyang stock, which rose an astonishing 50 times from 4,000 KRW to 194,000 KRW." An FSS official said, "If there are suspicious circumstances such as fraudulent unfair trading in the market, we follow procedures to verify them," but added, "We cannot disclose detailed information."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
