The prosecution has launched a compulsory investigation into IBK Industrial Bank, where a financial accident involving approximately 88 billion KRW occurred. It is reported that through this search and seizure, the prosecution plans to verify whether Industrial Bank concealed the situation despite receiving reports of improper loans.
According to the legal community on the 1st, the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Joon-dong) has been conducting search and seizure operations since the morning at the Industrial Bank headquarters located in Jung-gu, Seoul, some regional centers and branches in Seoul, and the residences of loan officers in connection with allegations of illegal loans.
This comes 15 days after the prosecution conducted search and seizure at about 20 offices of current and former Industrial Bank employees in Seoul and Incheon on the 17th of last month, securing loan screening documents and other materials. Industrial Bank announced in January that a breach of trust accident amounting to 23.95 billion KRW had occurred. However, on the 25th of last month, the Financial Supervisory Service revealed that the scale of the improper loan breach of trust was more than three times larger than the amount disclosed by Industrial Bank in January, totaling 88.2 billion KRW.
The prosecution suspects that retired employees of Industrial Bank colluded with current employees to inflate real estate collateral values and cause improper loans. The period of the incident spans from June 2022 to November of last year. It is known that multiple branches of Industrial Bank in the Gangdong area of Seoul were involved.
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