President Lee Jae-myung on the 19th ordered an expansion of staffing, such as creating one or two more teams within the currently operating joint response task force to eradicate stock price manipulation, saying the government needs to send a clear message that those who manipulate stock prices should be ruined. He also said it is necessary to consider expanding the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) special judicial police's authority to initiate cases.
In the afternoon, at Government Complex Seoul, the president received a briefing from the Financial Services Commission (FSC) on its policy direction and said, "The joint response task force on stock price manipulation is essentially a single team," adding, "We need to create one or two more teams and make them compete by team." He also stressed, "We must show clearly that if you manipulate stock prices or engage in unfair trading in the Korean market, you will be ruined."
Earlier, on Jul. 7, three agencies—the Financial Services Commission (FSC), the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), and the Korea Exchange (KRX)—launched the "joint response task force to eradicate stock price manipulation," which operates a one-stop investigation system capable of conducting searches and seizures on suspected market rigging. It is composed of a total of 37 people, including the FSS Director General as head, 4 from the FSC, 20 from the Financial Supervisory Service, and 12 from the exchange.
Since its launch, the task force has uncovered its first and second cases, including "elite group market rigging" and "use of undisclosed information by senior executives at securities firms."
The president said, "Early response is crucial to shake things down so thoroughly that they cannot even dream of stock price manipulation," and urged, "We must invest heavily in initial manpower because we need to block it at the source, not just catch what already exists."
On this, Financial Services Commission Chairperson Lee Eog-weon said, "We need a lot of personnel at each stage, including forensics, in the task force's work," adding, "If we further expand staffing, we will catch cases up to No. 10, No. 20, and No. 50." Lee also said, "Beyond the current No. 1 and No. 2 cases, we identified additional cases in which a senior executive at a securities firm obtained listing-related information in advance and passed it to relatives, and we proceeded with searches and seizures."
There was also a request to expand the authority to initiate cases for the FSS special judicial police. Financial Supervisory Service Governor Lee Chan-jin said, "The FSS is better equipped with forensic infrastructure, but compared with the task force, there is a limitation in that we lack compulsory investigative authority."
The governor said, "As one entire investigation bureau has been seconded to the joint response task force to eradicate stock price manipulation, general investigations have been backlogged for more than two months."
President Lee Jae-myung mentioned a review of expanding initiation authority in response. The president said, "What is clear is that we need to significantly increase our investigative capacity," adding, "The prime minister's office needs to take the lead and check issues such as staffing shortages related to expanding initiation authority."