This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 5:56 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2026.
As controversy continues over alleged lobbying to secure clinical trials for Genencell's COVID-19 treatment by Minister of Justice nominee Kim Seung-won, it has been confirmed that the capital market players who made high returns by investing in Genencell-related stocks in 2020 also invested ahead of the sharp stock surge in 2021, when Genencell's sale and clinical approval again sent shares soaring, and profited. Analysts say this is a repeated pattern as if they invested with awareness that a major event was imminent.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system and people familiar with the situation on the 11th, during the period when Genencell drew attention as a COVID-19 treatment developer, some investors repeatedly switched investment channels to bet on the Genencell theme.
The representative figures who appeared in succession in 2020 and 2021 are Yu Cheol-woo (U&D), Chairman Namgung Gyeon, and Lee Jae-cheol. In 2020, GoldPacific, Genencell's largest shareholder at the time, and in 2021, Sejong Medical, which became the largest shareholder, had Yu and Chairman Namgung as financial investors (FI). Yu held 100% equity in Balancers, which became GoldPacific's largest shareholder in 2018, and was later appointed as an inside director of GoldPacific. Yu later transferred GoldPacific to an investment purpose company funded by corporations controlled by Chairman Namgung Gyeon.
Their names reappeared in 2021 during Time Investment's acquisition of Genencell. When Time Investment acquired Sejong Medical, some FIs participated, and Yu and Chairman Namgung's names can be found there. Yu, under the names Yu Cheol-woo and U&D, invested in two vehicles—MOB Consortium and New Hara No. 19 Investment Association—while Chairman Namgung invested in his personal capacity through the BMC Consortium.
In addition, including Shin Hee-jung, who was an inside director of GoldPacific in 2020, some of the individuals are the same as those mentioned a year earlier when related stocks rose on the back of a joint-theme study.
There is another key investor between the two deals: Time Investment, 100% owned by CEO Lee Jae-cheol. Time Investment bought GoldPacific convertible bonds (CB) in Sept. 2020 and secured 6.46% equity. The CB purchase and conversion price was 1,206 won per share, for a total investment of 4 billion won.
Time Investment exited just one month after investing in GoldPacific, selling about one-third of its GoldPacific equity in October at 2,100 won per share. This was right after Genencell released news that it would proceed with clinical trials in India. However, because the sale at the time reduced Time Investment's GoldPacific equity stake to below 5%, it is unclear at what price and when the remaining equity was disposed of.
Time Investment then acquired Genencell through Sejong Medical in 2021 and sold Sejong Medical to Canary Bio, run by Lee Jun-min, who was recently sentenced to prison on stock manipulation charges.
Industry officials say it is hard to take issue with the mere fact that the same individuals repeatedly appear around a particular company, but looking at the timing of their exits, it is difficult to rule out the possibility of using nonpublic information.
They sold all their association equity and took profits on Oct. 27, 2021, a day after Genencell received approval from the Ministery of Food and Drug Safety for domestic clinical trials of its COVID-19 treatment. The sale price at the time was around 5,000 won per share, and considering stock splits, they are estimated to have made at least a 25% gain.
A capital markets industry source said, "It is not yet known through what process they proceeded with their investments, but this is a completely different pattern from making consecutive investments based on a corporation's value," adding, "It is also worth noting that, in the end, all of Genencell's pipelines failed in development."