A 'Finfluencer' (Finance + Influencer) with tens of thousands of subscribers on social networking services (SNS) was found to have gained unfair profits amounting to 2.3 billion KRW through insider trading.
The Financial Supervisory Service's Capital Market Special Judicial Police announced on the 3rd that they have sent five individuals, including Finfluencer A, who operated a Telegram channel and engaged in insider trading, and four others who provided nominee accounts and stock purchase funds to A, to the prosecution on charges of violating the Capital Markets Act.
The Finfluencer A detected in this case exploited the fact that posting the name of a specific stock on the Telegram channel instantly triggered a large-scale buying spree.
They pre-purchased 306 small and mid-cap stocks with high price volatility, then recommended buying them on the Telegram channel, and immediately sold them at a high price. It was confirmed that through this method, they obtained unfair profits totaling approximately 2.27 billion KRW over several years.
The Financial Supervisory Service advised that if investors follow purchases without objective judgment, they may become the counterparty to the Finfluencer's sales, receiving the stocks and subsequently suffering investment losses due to a sharp decline in stock prices.
The Financial Supervisory Service recommended, "Even if stocks are recommended as 'rapidly rising stocks,' 'featured stocks,' or 'related theme stocks' on platforms like Telegram, investors should first verify the actual business details of the recommended companies through corporate disclosures and reputable news articles before investing."
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