Supreme Court Upholds Acquittal of Hana Bank Employee in 'Optimus Fund Ponzi Scheme' Case

Both the First and Second Trials End in Acquittal

An employee of Hana Bank, which served as the fund trustee for Optimus Asset Management (Optimus), was brought to trial on charges of participating in a 'fund redemption payment Ponzi scheme,' but has been acquitted with the verdict now finalized.

Supreme Court, Seocho-gu, Seoul.

According to the legal community on January 16, the Supreme Court's second division (Presiding Justice Park Youngjae) upheld the lower court's acquittal of employee A, former Optimus Asset Management CEO Kim Jaehyun, and Hana Bank, which was indicted under the joint penal provision, on charges including violations of the Capital Markets Act and breach of trust in the course of work.

Employee A, who worked in the trust business department at Hana Bank, was brought to trial in May 2021 on suspicion of using funds from other entrusted funds on three occasions between August and December 2018 to cover 9.2 billion won in redemption payments for Optimus funds.

The court of first instance acquitted both employee A, CEO Kim, and the Hana Bank corporation. The first-instance court stated, "There were separate ledgers maintained by the fund accounting team at Hana Bank, which managed the funds by distinguishing the client and fund names for each fund, so there was no internal risk of fund assets being commingled." Regarding transactions between funds, the court added, "There was no actual change in rights or obligations, so it is difficult to regard this as a transaction between funds."

The appellate court reached the same conclusion. The appellate court stated, "Given the nature of the trust business department, which must close out its work at the end of each business day, it appears that the fund work was only temporarily closed, and it is clear there was no intent to transfer funds between the funds."

The Supreme Court also dismissed the appeal, finding no error in the lower court's application of the law.

Meanwhile, former CEO Kim is currently serving a 40-year prison sentence, along with a fine of 500 million won and forfeiture of over 75.1 billion won, after his conviction was finalized in July 2022 on charges of fraud involving Optimus-related funds worth over 1 trillion won under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes.