'Son Tae-seung's Brother-in-law Arrested in Woori Bank Unfair Loan Suspicion'

"Fear of Escape and Evidence Destruction"

Kim Mo, the brother-in-law of former Woori Financial Group Chairman Sohn Tae-seung, was arrested on the 7th in connection with allegations of improper loans involving relatives of Sohn.

On the same day, Chief Judge Joo Chae-kwang of the Seoul Southern District Court issued an arrest warrant for Kim on charges including embezzlement under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes and forgery of private documents. Judge Joo stated, "There is a risk of flight and evidence destruction."

Kim, brother-in-law of Son Tae-seung, former chairman of Woori Financial Group, who is accused of receiving excessive loans from Woori Bank, is attending the pre-arrest detention hearing at the Seoul Southern District Court in Yangcheon-gu on the afternoon of the 7th.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

Kim is accused of misappropriating company funds under his wife's name and forging real estate contracts purchased through the company to inflate the acquisition price, subsequently using this to obtain excessive loans from Woori Bank.

The prosecution conducted a search and seizure of Kim's home and office on the 27th of last month and arrested him on the 5th.

The prosecution is investigating after receiving the Financial Supervisory Service's inspection results, which revealed that Woori Bank issued improper loans totaling approximately 35 billion won to corporations or individual business owners related to Sohn's relatives from April 2020 to January this year.

While examining the circumstances under which the large-scale loans were made, the prosecution is focusing on whether former Chairman Sohn and the management at the time directly ordered or were aware of the improper loans.