The prosecution's investigation into Cha Jeong-hoon, chairman of Korea Land Trust, and company executives, who are suspected of receiving tens of billions of won in bribes from service providers in the trust business and misusing corporate credit cards for personal gain, has entered its final phase. The investigation team plans to summon Chairman Cha as soon as the related parties' investigations are completed.
The Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 3 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Seung-hak) is investigating Chairman Cha and executives on charges including bribery and breach of trust under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes in connection with allegations of corruption at Korea Land Trust.
According to reports, the investigation team has reviewed all inspection materials on Korea Land Trust’s illegal pursuit of private interests handed over by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) and has completed the analysis of Chairman Cha’s account details. Initially, the FSS estimated the amount of bribes received to be around 4.5 billion won, but the investigation team believes the amount reaches into the 10 billion won range.
As a significant portion of the investigation has been conducted, it is anticipated that Chairman Cha’s summons for questioning is imminent.
The allegations of corruption at Korea Land Trust were uncovered through the FSS’s focused inspection on illegal and unsound practices. The FSS referred the case to the prosecution on charges that Chairman Cha and executives received money and gifts from representatives of service providers such as sales agency companies involved in the trust business and misused corporate credit cards for personal purposes.
Typically, cases reported by the FSS are handled by the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office, but since this is the first case where illegal pursuit of private interests by a major shareholder was detected and the case is serious, it was assigned to the Anti-Corruption Division 3 of the Central District Prosecutors' Office, the frontline department for special investigations. Chief Prosecutor Lee Seung-hak previously led the Investigation Team 1 of the Financial Securities Crime Joint Investigation Unit at the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office, where he investigated the SG Securities stock plunge incident and the Terra-Luna coin case.
Currently, the prosecution is also investigating allegations that executives of five securities firms?LS Securities (formerly Ebest Investment & Securities), Meritz Securities, Hi Investment & Securities, Daol Investment & Securities, and Hyundai Motor Securities?profited significantly by using information related to real estate project financing (PF).
Earlier this year, the FSS detected illegal activities by executives of these five securities firms through a PF planning inspection and reported them to the prosecution. The investigation has recently intensified. Among the five firms, LS Securities and Meritz Securities cases are handled by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, while the other three are under investigation by the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office, which mainly deals with financial crimes. Among these, the Anti-Corruption Division 3 is handling a case involving an LS Securities executive who allegedly pocketed a large sum during the acquisition process of the Homeplus site in Tanbang-dong, Daejeon, violating the Capital Markets Act. The prosecution believes that the LS Securities executive used information obtained while supporting funds for a real estate project financing (PF) involving Hyundai Construction to gain unfair profits. On the 21st, the prosecution conducted raids on LS Securities and Hyundai Construction, marking the start of a full-scale investigation.
Woo Bin, Legal News Reporter
※This article is based on content supplied by Law Times.
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