This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 4:08 p.m. on May 20, 2026.
It has been confirmed that the management of Cellumed, suspected of sham payment of paid-in capital for a rights offering, has been sued on charges of embezzlement and breach of trust. Despite facing the risk of delisting, Cellumed lent most of the 17 billion won in rights offering proceeds to an outside corporation, and, after failing to recover the funds, has entered litigation. Although the case has moved into a legal battle, some note it is likely not a simple case of unpaid funds. They say it was a planned sham payment.
According to the capital market industry on the 20th, a former management controller at Cellumed, a person surnamed Lee, recently filed a complaint with the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office against Cellumed CEO Yoo In-soo, other executives, and four others including a loan shark surnamed Park, on charges of embezzlement and breach of trust. The thrust is that the series of fund flows at Cellumed amounted to a sham payment.
In December last year, Cellumed carried out a 17 billion won third-party allotment rights offering to TD Landmark Fund No. 1. With the rights offering, the largest shareholder changed from Inscobee to TD Landmark Fund, and management control shifted as well. Cellumed had initially planned to use 13.3 billion won of the rights offering funds as compensation to pay Buchel Pappas in the United States. After 12 years of litigation over royalties related to artificial joints with Buchel Pappas, Cellumed lost in February last year and had to pay damages.
However, Cellumed abruptly provided lending of 14 billion won from the rights offering proceeds to an outside corporation, Prime Core. It explained that the intent was to generate short-term interest revenue by lending the funds from Apr. 17 to May 15.
The problem is that Cellumed has not recovered the lending principal even after the repayment date passed. Because the collateral arrangement promised at the time of the lending was not completed, a lawsuit to recover the lending principal is underway.
Given the somewhat hard-to-understand fund flows, the market has raised suspicions that Cellumed's rights offering and fund lending process constituted a sham payment. Also called "jjikgi," a sham payment refers to making it seem as though funds were paid in during processes such as a rights offering or bond issuance without actually paying them in, or, even if paid in, immediately retrieving the funds.
With Cellumed's management now sued on such charges, the sham payment suspicions are expected to intensify. The complainant, the former management controller Lee, was appointed on Apr. 16, the day before the fund lending contract, and voluntarily resigned a week later on the 23rd.
According to the complaint, as the likelihood grew last year that Cellumed would not receive an audit opinion in its external audit due to the damages issue, it planned a sham payment to resolve it. Subsequently, 14 billion won of the rights offering proceeds was allegedly withdrawn by check the day after the funds were paid in and kept by a loan shark. However, Cellumed ultimately failed to obtain an audit opinion, and a plan emerged to use those funds to acquire Bucket Studio. To that end, it allegedly dressed the transaction up as a normal fund lending with Prime Core.
Lee said, "As Cellumed passed the rights offering proceeds to Prime Core in the form of fund lending, it issued both a fake lending contract and another contract stating that the first contract had no effect," and added, "I understand that it will not be easy to win the lawsuit currently underway that Cellumed filed to get the money back."
Lee claims that, along with the 14 billion won in Cellumed funds, an additional 6 billion won prepared separately flowed through Prime Core to another corporation, Wabi Sabi Holdings, for a total of 20 billion won. Wabi Sabi Holdings is the entity that had moved to acquire Bucket Studio, the largest shareholder of Vidente, the No. 2 shareholder of the cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb.
In fact, Wabi Sabi Holdings was scheduled to carry out a 20 billion won rights offering to Bucket Studio on Apr. 20, but the actual payment did not take place. The management acquisition agreement was then canceled after Wabi Sabi Holdings failed to pay the funds needed to purchase existing shares.
A pledge was established in the loan shark's name over the 20 billion won, and the funds are said to have been retrieved by the loan shark.
Cellumed did not offer a specific response to the suspicions. A call to the company to hear its position on the complaint alleging embezzlement and breach of trust by management drew the reply, "There is no person in charge who can answer the inquiry."