The bankruptcy proceedings of Hanmac Investment & Securities (hereinafter Hanmac), which lost 46.2 billion won due to an employee's computer error, have entered their final stages after 10 years. According to the Seoul Bankruptcy Court, the average time from corporate bankruptcy filing to conclusion was 13 months as of 2021. In Hanmac's case, it almost took 10 times longer.
The Hanmac incident occurred on Dec. 12, 2013, due to an employee's mistake. At the time, Hanmac Securities was using an automated trading program for derivatives. The software generated quotes automatically based on input conditions such as interest rates. However, on the day of the incident, the employee incorrectly entered the settings. As a result, derivatives were released from Hanmac at prices much lower than the market. Other securities firms purchased these products, causing Hanmac to incur a loss of 46.2 billion won within 143 seconds.
Some domestic securities firms returned the profits they obtained from this situation. However, the U.S. hedge fund Cassia Capital did not return approximately 36 billion won in profits. Hanmac Securities' liabilities exceeded its assets by 31.1 billion won in an instant, and it filed for bankruptcy in court in 2015. Hanmac sued Cassia Capital to recover the investment profits, but lost the final ruling in April 2023. The Supreme Court noted, "Hanmac had a duty to verify the appropriateness of the numbers before inputting them into the program, and failing to do so constitutes gross negligence for which Hanmac is responsible."
Two years and four months after the Supreme Court ruling, on the 7th, the 16th Division of the Seoul Bankruptcy Court (Presiding Judge Won Yong-il) issued a final dividend notice and called for a creditors' meeting regarding the Hanmac bankruptcy case. It stated that the calculations for the funds to be distributed to creditors had been completed, and thus a creditors' meeting would be held to report the details. A representative from the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC), which is Hanmac's bankruptcy trustee, said, "The litigation that Hanmac initiated to recover its losses has dragged on for nearly a decade, thus delaying the bankruptcy proceedings as well."
Currently, the remaining money with Hanmac is said to be around 340 million won. This amount is expected to go to the priority creditor, the Korea Exchange. At the time of the Hanmac incident, the Korea Exchange covered Hanmac's settlement payments with its own funds to prevent market disruptions due to payment defaults. In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that the Korea Exchange must be repaid by the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC), Hanmac's bankruptcy trustee, for the money it covered.
There are 26 general creditors, most of whom are wage creditors who have not received their salaries due to Hanmac's bankruptcy. They have not received a single penny of the wages they were supposed to be paid 12 years ago.