Fraud involving approximately 1.595 trillion KRW and breach of trust amounting to 69.2 billion KRW
Seriousness of the case, risk of evidence destruction, and flight concerns
Significant damage to sellers and consumers due to delayed settlements
Arrest warrants have been requested for key figures involved in the TMON and WEMAKEPRICE (Timep) incident.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office's dedicated investigation team for the TMON and WEMAKEPRICE incident (led by Chief Prosecutor Lee Joon-dong) announced on the 4th that they have requested pre-arrest warrants for Koo Young-bae, chairman of the Qoo10 Group, Ryu Kwang-jin, CEO of TMON, and Ryu Hwa-hyun, CEO of WEMAKEPRICE.
They are accused of embezzling settlement payments from the sale of goods worth a total of approximately 1.595 trillion KRW related to the unsettled payment incident at TMON and WEMAKEPRICE, breaching their fiduciary duty by diverting work to affiliated companies and misappropriating a total of 69.2 billion KRW of funds from TMON and WEMAKEPRICE, and embezzling a total of 67.1 billion KRW for the acquisition payment of a US-based e-commerce company.
In requesting the arrest warrants, the prosecution explained that they "considered the seriousness of the case, the possibility of evidence destruction, and the risk of flight comprehensively." This investigation signals a strong enforcement of the law against illegal activities in the domestic e-commerce market.
The Supreme Prosecutors' Office formed a dedicated investigation team and began the investigation in July regarding the delayed settlement incident of Timep, a subsidiary of Singapore-based e-commerce company Qoo10. The Ministry of Justice imposed a travel ban on Koo Young-bae, CEO of Qoo10. Instead of the criminal division handling complaints and accusations, the anti-corruption division responsible for ex officio investigations took charge. This was due to the consideration that the scale of damage is enormous, including not only sellers who did not receive payment but also consumers who did not receive refunds.
Timep is believed to have applied embezzlement and breach of fiduciary duty charges against the management because they maintained contracts with tenant companies and fintech companies despite knowing that it was difficult to pay for goods due to cash liquidity problems. There are also suspicions that the financial pressure intensified after aggressively acquiring North America and Europe-based e-commerce company ‘Wish’ and Aekyung Group’s online mall ‘AK Mall’ earlier this year, leading to the use of some sales proceeds for other purposes.
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