Prosecutors "Request to Cancel Kim Beom-su's Bail"... Appeal to the Court

On the 6th, the prosecution requested the court to revoke the bail approval decision for Kim Beom-su, Chairman of the Kakao Management Innovation Committee.

Kim Beom-su, Chairman of Kakao's Management Innovation Committee, is speaking after being released on bail from Seoul Southern Detention Center in Guro-gu, Seoul, on the 31st of last month. Photo by Yonhap News

According to the legal community on the same day, the Financial Investigation Division 2 of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Jang Dae-gyu) filed an appeal seeking the cancellation of the court's bail approval decision for Chairman Kim, who is accused of violating the Capital Markets Act in connection with the 'SM stock price manipulation' suspicion.

The Southern District Prosecutors' Office stated, "Given the nature of the case, the evidence of guilt is very serious, and the charges correspond to a long-term imprisonment of over 10 years, raising concerns about flight risk due to the expectation of a heavy sentence." They added, "No witness examination has been conducted yet, and the key witnesses scheduled for future testimony are still under the defendant's control, making the possibility of evidence tampering through witness intimidation highly likely." Furthermore, they noted, "The detention period is only about three months, and considering that there has been no change in circumstances since the detention and that, unlike other cases, the defendant was released unusually quickly within a short period (which infringes on fairness), we have taken these factors into account."

Chairman Kim was detained on July 23 last year on charges of manipulating the stock price of SM Entertainment while competing for shares with HYBE over SM Entertainment. He was subsequently indicted while in detention on August 8. The maximum detention period during the first trial is two months, with the possibility of two additional extensions of two months each. In Kim's case, the detention period was extended once until December 8, but the court accepted his bail application, and he was released on the 31st of last month after approximately 100 days in detention. He is currently standing trial without detention. The court set bail conditions including residence restrictions, prohibition of contact with trial-related persons, a deposit of 300 million KRW, and submission of a written pledge.