La Deok-yeon (44), CEO of investment consulting firm H, who is accused of embezzling more than 700 billion won in illicit gains due to the Soci?t? G?n?rale (SG) securities-related stock price crash, has appealed the first trial verdict.
According to the legal community on the 18th, La's defense attorney filed an appeal against the first trial, which sentenced La to 25 years in prison for violating the Capital Markets Act.
The defendants tried together with La have also expressed their intention to appeal to the court since the 16th.
The Seoul Southern District Court Criminal Division 11 (Presiding Judge Jung Do-sung) sentenced La to 25 years in prison, a fine of 146.51 billion won, and a confiscation of 194.48675 billion won on the 13th.
Key employee Byeon, a core member of La's group, was sentenced to 6 years in prison and fined 2.6 billion won, while Ahn was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in prison and fined 500 million won. They were acquitted of charges of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes (tax evasion).
The 14 defendants indicted alongside La received different sentences depending on their roles as co-principals or accomplices. Among the 10 co-principals, 8 were sentenced to imprisonment and detained in court, while 2 received suspended sentences.
La and his group are accused of operating an unregistered quasi-investment advisory firm from February 2019 to April 2023 and manipulating the prices of eight stocks through methods such as wash trading, earning illicit profits of 737.7 billion won. This is the largest stock price manipulation case ever detected.
La is also accused of embezzling about 194.4 billion won in illicit gains under the pretext of commission fees during this process.
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