Prosecution Appeals First-Instance Acquittal of LG Heir Couple in 'Non-Public Information Stock Trading' Case

The prosecution has appealed the first-instance not-guilty verdict for the eldest daughter and her husband of the late Koo Bon-moo, former chairman of LG Group, who were indicted on charges of acquiring shares using non-public information.

The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office announced on the 13th that it had appealed the first-instance ruling that acquitted Koo Yeonkyung, head of the LG Welfare Foundation, and her husband Yoon Gwan, head of Bluerun Ventures (BRV), who were indicted on charges of violating the Capital Markets Act.

Prosecutors. Yonhap News

The prosecution stated, "This case involves the defendant using non-public information that she would participate in a rights offering worth 50 billion won by her husband's company to massively purchase the relevant stock one week before that information was made public."

The court of first instance acquitted them, citing reasons such as a lack of evidence that the information was conveyed and the relatively small scale of the stock purchases compared to the defendant's total assets. However, the prosecution explained that it took into account the particular nature of the marital relationship as an 'economic and living community' and the way the defendants manage their assets. It added that it decided to appeal after comprehensively considering factors such as the fact that Koo Yeonkyung personally purchased shares for the first time in her life the very next day after the non-public information was created, and the principle that the criteria for determining the use of non-public information should not vary depending on the size of one's assets.

Previously, the couple was indicted on charges of obtaining unfair gains by using undisclosed material information related to a rights offering by Company A, a KOSDAQ-listed bio company.

The prosecution viewed that when Koo acquired 30,000 shares of Company A in April 2023, she had used non-public investment-attraction information she had heard from her husband. However, the first-instance court determined that there was no direct evidence that Yoon had conveyed the non-public information to Koo, and that it was difficult to find the charges proven guilty based solely on circumstantial facts.

A prosecution official said, "We will do our best to protect the public and ordinary investors from unfair trading practices that disrupt the financial and securities markets."