Kim Beom-su, Chairman of Kakao's Management Innovation Committee, who was detained on suspicion of stock price manipulation of SM Entertainment, was summoned to the prosecution for the first time since his detention on the 24th and is currently under investigation.
Kakao founder and Management Innovation Committee Chairman Kim Beom-su, considered the pinnacle of the 'SM market manipulation' suspicion, is attending the detention hearing (warrant review) held on the 22nd at the Southern District Court in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@
The Financial Investigation Division 2 of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Jang Dae-gyu) has been questioning Chairman Kim since 10 a.m. that day. This is the first summons about 34 hours after he was detained at the Seoul Southern Detention Center around 1 a.m. the previous day.
Initially, the prosecution requested his appearance in the afternoon of the day he was detained, but the investigation did not proceed as Chairman Kim submitted a letter of absence due to health reasons.
Based on the investigation so far, the prosecution is expected to focus on questioning whether Chairman Kim ordered or approved the stock price manipulation of SM Entertainment. Kakao is accused of manipulating the stock price to keep it higher than the public tender offer price (120,000 KRW) in order to block HYBE's public tender offer during the acquisition competition over SM Entertainment in February last year. The prosecution believes that Kim, as Kakao's top decision-maker, was informed of and approved this crime in advance during the series of events.
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