Prosecutors Arrest Main Suspect in 'Yeongpung Paper Stock Manipulation'... "Risk of Evidence Tampering and Flight"

Lee, who was identified as the main culprit in the Youngpoong Paper stock manipulation scandal, was arrested by the prosecution on the 29th.

Yoo Hwan-woo, the chief judge in charge of the warrant review at the Seoul Southern District Court, issued the arrest warrant for Lee in the afternoon, stating, "There is a risk of evidence destruction and flight," as requested by the prosecution.

Seoul Nambu District Court

Earlier, Lee's warrant review was scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. that day, but the hearing did not take place as Lee's defense attorney submitted a letter of absence to the court. Accordingly, the court conducted a written review based on the evidence submitted by the prosecution and issued the warrant relatively early.

The Financial and Securities Crime Joint Investigation Division of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Ha Dong-woo) filed an arrest warrant request against Lee the previous day on charges of violating the Capital Markets Act. Lee is accused of manipulating the stock price of Youngpoong Paper a total of 38,875 times (equivalent to approximately 35.97 million shares) along with a group involved in stock manipulation since early last year, gaining unfair profits worth about 278.9 billion won.

As the prosecution's investigation tightened, Lee fled around October last year but was caught on the 26th while attempting to stow away to Vietnam by sea from Jeju Island.