Prosecution Seeks 30-Year Prison Sentence for Lumen Payments CEO Over 78 Billion KRW Repayment Delay

The prosecution has sought a heavy sentence for Kim Inhwan, CEO of the electronic payment gateway company Lumen Payments, who was apprehended after fleeing in connection with a payment delay incident involving approximately 78 billion KRW.

At the sentencing hearing held on May 28, 2025, before the 14th Criminal Division of the Seoul Southern District Court (Presiding Judge Lee Jeonghee), prosecutors requested a 30-year prison sentence and the forfeiture of approximately 40.8 billion KRW for Kim, who was indicted on charges of fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes. For Seo, who stood trial alongside Kim for aiding and abetting his crimes, the prosecution sought a three-year prison sentence.

According to the prosecution, Kim is accused of using a paper company to obtain a pre-settlement loan of 72 billion KRW from the online investment-linked finance company Cross Finance by pledging fictitious credit card sales receivables as collateral. He is also alleged to have received an additional 6 billion KRW in pre-settlement loans from other companies, which he failed to repay.

In his final statement that day, Kim said, "Over the past seven years since 2018, I have settled more than 1.3 trillion KRW in payments through the payment gateway business and have never failed to pay merchants even once. When I realized that the company could not pay merchants with its own funds, I knew it was a wrong decision, but I withdrew funds from Cross Finance to prevent card cancellations in an urgent situation that would have caused significant harm to self-employed individuals and small business owners."

He added, "I thought I could repay the loans by working hard. I am still young and have both the will and ability to restart my business. I will find a way to repay the loans to the victims, recover from this, and deeply reflect so that such an incident never happens again."

The prosecution applied for an arrest warrant for Kim on August 21, 2024, but he absconded after failing to appear at the pretrial detention hearing. Subsequently, on August 27, 2024, the court issued another arrest warrant, and three days later, Kim was apprehended at a hideout in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul.

Later, at the second trial held on November 20, 2024, Kim admitted to all the charges.

Sentencing for Kim and Seo is scheduled for July 2, 2025, at 10:00 a.m.