Former Meritz Securities Executive Indicted for Illegal Loans and Bribery Involving 100 Billion KRW

Borrowed 118.6 Billion Won to Acquire Real Estate Worth About 90 Billion Won
Provided About 800 Million Won in Kickbacks for Loan Brokerage

A former executive of Meritz Securities has been brought to trial on charges of receiving large loans from other financial institutions through employee mediation and providing compensation in return.

According to the legal community on the 14th, the Tax Crime Investigation Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Lee Jin-yong) recently indicted former Meritz Securities executive Park on charges of mediation and embezzlement under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes without detention. Employees Kim and Lee, who facilitated the loans for Park and received compensation, were also indicted without detention on charges of bribery under the same law.

Park is accused of arranging loans from other financial institutions five times over approximately three years from October 2014 to September 2017 through Kim and Lee to raise funds for real estate acquisition and providing compensation in return. The prosecution estimates the total loan amount received by Park to be 118.6 billion won.

It was investigated that Park used real estate project financing (PF) information related to his duties to acquire and lease 11 real estate properties worth about 90 billion won through Corporation A, established by his family. He is believed to have delivered valuables worth approximately 460 million won to Kim and 380 million won to Lee in the form of salaries or retirement benefits through Corporation A as compensation for arranging the loans.

Earlier, the Financial Supervisory Service announced in January that, as a result of a planned inspection, it had uncovered cases where Meritz Securities executives and employees used job-related information to directly acquire and then sell real estate, during which the company performed underwriting and arranging duties related to the buyer's financing. Based on this information, the prosecution has been conducting an investigation.