3rd Regular Meeting of the Securities and Futures Commission
24 Individuals and 4 Cases Referred for Complaint and Notification to Investigative Authorities
A large number of people who used inside information such as paid-in capital increases and shifts into losses to gain unfair profits have been handed over to investigative authorities.
Kwon Daeyoung, chairman of the Securities and Futures Commission (vice chairman of the Financial Services Commission), is speaking at a regular meeting held at the Government Complex Seoul in Jongno-gu, Seoul on Aug. 27, 2025. Photo by Cho Yongjun
The Securities and Futures Commission of the Financial Services Commission announced that at its 3rd regular meeting on February 4, it resolved to file complaints against, and notify investigative authorities of, 24 individuals who obtained unfair gains using non-public information.
First, three individuals, including a disclosure agent and the head of an IR consulting firm who exploited favorable inside information, were referred for complaint and notification to investigative authorities. The investigation found that Mr. A, head of a disclosure agency, learned favorable inside information regarding Companies B and C in the course of his disclosure agency work and obtained unfair gains of about 100 million won. Mr. D, who received this information from Mr. A, earned unfair gains of about 200 million won and paid Mr. A about 30 million won in return for the information. Similarly, Mr. E, head of an IR consulting firm, also earned tens of millions of won over four transactions by using favorable, non-public material information he came to know while handling disclosure and IR outsourcing work for Company F.
Mr. H, the largest shareholder of listed Company G and the person giving execution orders, who avoided losses by knowing in advance adverse inside information such as the company’s shift into losses, was also handed over to investigative authorities. After receiving the internal settlement results, Mr. H learned of the shift into operating losses and, before the information was made public, sold shares of Company G held by himself and related Company I, thereby obtaining a total of 3.2 billion won in unfair gains.
Four individuals, including employees of a pharmaceutical company, who profited from inside information related to the development of treatments, were likewise reported to investigative authorities. Mr. K, an employee of pharmaceutical Company J, worked at J’s research institute and, before information related to a COVID-19 treatment became public, purchased J’s shares together with his spouse, Ms. L, earning about 70 million won. After sharing this information with acquaintances Mr. M and Mr. N, Ms. L pooled funds with them to invest and earned about 147 million won.
Sixteen individuals, including officers and employees of listed companies who unfairly profited by knowing in advance information such as paid-in capital increases, and a former employee of a listed company who used this information to buy shares of another listed company in the same industry and gained unfair profits, were also subject to criminal complaints or notification to investigative authorities.
Employees Q, R, S, and T of listed Company O, and former employee Mr. U of listed Company P, knew that Company P would participate in Company O’s paid-in capital increase and that Company O would acquire a large quantity of Company P’s shares, and they bought shares of Company O together with family members and acquaintances, obtaining a total of 4.34 billion won in unfair gains. In particular, Mr. U passed this inside information to his family so they would buy shares of Company O, while he himself, in an attempt to avoid detection, bought shares of another listed company in the same industry whose share price was expected to rise when the information was disclosed, earning 40 million won.
An official at the Financial Services Commission said, "If you use non-public material information that you came to know in connection with your duties for trading, or have others use it, you become subject to criminal punishment for violating the Capital Markets Act," adding, "Under recently introduced sanctions, measures such as fines of up to twice the amount of unfair gains and account payment suspensions of up to 12 months can also be imposed."
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