Will the re-investigation of the '3 Major Funds' accelerate... 'Yoon Team' in key positions at the Southern District Prosecutors' Office, experts in financial investigations

Yoon and Special Prosecutor Bae Moon-gi Who Worked on State Affairs Manipulation
Ha Dong-woo Appointed Head of Joint Investigation Team for '3 Major Fund Probes'

In the mid-level personnel reshuffle of the prosecution conducted by the Ministry of Justice on the 20th, prosecutors from the ‘Yoon Seok-yeol faction’ with expertise in financial investigations were fully assigned to key positions at the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office, which focuses on financial crimes. This move is interpreted as an effort to accelerate the investigation into the stagnant ‘three major fund (Lime, Optimus, Discovery) fraud’ cases that have yet to yield significant results.

Bae Moon-gi, Deputy Chief Prosecutor of Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office.

In the mid-level personnel reshuffle on the 20th, Bae Moon-gi, former head of the Inspection Division 3 at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office (Judicial Research and Training Institute class 32), was appointed as the 2nd Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office. Deputy Chief Bae has served as head of the Criminal Division 1 at Incheon District Prosecutors' Office, head of the Criminal Division 2 at Cheongju District Prosecutors' Office, and head of the Criminal Division 5 at Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office. He investigated match-fixing cases and indicted 54 K League players and brokers, earning the Prosecutor of the Year award selected by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office. Deputy Chief Bae is known for valuing principles.

With Deputy Chief Bae's arrival, there is speculation that the investigation into the ‘three major fund (Lime, Optimus, Discovery)’ cases at the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office will gain momentum. Deputy Chief Bae is considered part of the ‘Yoon Seok-yeol faction’ along with Kim Yoo-cheol, chief prosecutor of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office. He was dispatched to the special prosecution team for the ‘Choi Soon-sil political scandal’ and worked with then-investigation team leader President Yoon. The special prosecution team included Han Dong-hoon, Minister of Justice, Yang Seok-jo, head of the Anti-Corruption Division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office (former chief prosecutor of Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office), and Lee Bok-hyun, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, who recently announced the results of the three major fund investigations.

The prosecution started reinvestigating the three major fund cases this year but has yet to achieve clear results. The prosecution requested an arrest warrant for Jang Ha-won, CEO of Discovery Asset Management, but the court dismissed it, stating, "There is room for dispute on some charges, and it is necessary to guarantee the suspect's opportunity to defend." In the reinvestigation of the Lime incident, securities firms were raided over preferential redemption suspicions, but overall, the investigation remains in its early stages. The legal community expects Deputy Chief Bae, a principled prosecutor, to strongly push forward the reinvestigation of the three major funds.

Under Deputy Chief Bae, many prosecutors with expertise in financial crimes were assigned to lead field investigations. Ha Dong-woo (class 33), known as a ‘fund-tracing expert,’ was appointed head of the Joint Financial and Securities Crime Investigation Division. Ha served as team leader of the Joint Investigation Team for Overseas Illegal Assets Recovery in 2018. Just before this appointment, he was deputy chief prosecutor at Incheon District Prosecutors' Office and previously served as head of the Criminal Division 2 at Anyang Branch and head of the Financial and Tax Crime Division at Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office. He also has experience in the Anti-Corruption Promotion Team at the Office for Government Policy Coordination and was dispatched to the National Intelligence Service.

Ha arrested and indicted five members of a voice phishing gang who impersonated prosecutors and Financial Supervisory Service employees to embezzle 2.8 billion won from four victims while at Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office. He will take over ongoing investigations by the joint investigation team, including the ‘SG Securities stock price crash incident,’ ‘three major fund reinvestigations,’ ‘Terra and Luna incidents,’ and ‘Edison EV and Diarc stock manipulation cases.’

Kwon Chan-hyuk (class 35) was appointed head of the Financial Investigation Division 1. Before this appointment, he worked at Jeonju District Prosecutors' Office and additionally indicted former lawmaker Lee Sang-jik and former CEO Choi Jong-gu of Eastar Jet in the ‘Eastar Jet recruitment irregularities case.’ Park Geon-young (class 36), head of Financial Investigation Division 2, previously served as deputy chief prosecutor of the joint investigation team at Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office and is expected to smoothly handle investigations such as the ‘Bithumb coin listing solicitation suspicions’ currently underway in Financial Investigation Division 2. Lee Jae-man (class 36), head of the Criminal Division 6, has served as deputy chief prosecutor at Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office and deputy chief prosecutor and criminal division prosecutor at Busan District Prosecutors' Office. Lee Jeong-ryeol (class 33), head of the Virtual Asset Joint Investigation Team launched in July, received Level 2 Certified Specialist (Blue Belt) certification in securities and finance from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in 2021.

Currently, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office is investigating numerous cases related to figures from the Moon Jae-in administration and the Democratic Party of Korea, in addition to the three major fund cases. The Criminal Division 6 is handling the case involving lawmaker Kim Nam-guk's ‘large-scale virtual currency investment suspicions,’ while allegations have been raised that opposition party figures are involved in the three major fund cases. Additionally, there are cases involving Democratic Party lawmakers Ki Dong-min and Lee Soo-jin (proportional representation), who are on trial for allegedly receiving political funds from Kim Bong-hyun, former chairman of Star Mobility, the main culprit in the Lime incident.