A KOSDAQ-listed company chair surnamed Lee was arrested on the 9th on charges of aiding the flight of Lee Gi-hoon, the former SAMBU Construction vice chair and Well Biotec chair, a key figure in SAMBU Construction stock manipulation.
The special counsel investigating various allegations related to Kim Keon-hee, Special Counsel Min Joong-ki, said in a media notice that the court issued an arrest warrant for Lee that day. The court explained the reason for issuing the warrant as "concerns about destruction of evidence and flight."
Lee is suspected of providing a vehicle and means of communication as a hideout route when the former vice chair fled ahead of a court detention review in July, on a charge of harboring a criminal.
The special counsel, having detected indications that Lee recently prepared to stow away, did not disclose the filing of the arrest warrant until the day before the pre-arrest suspect questioning (substantive warrant review) was held, considering the need for investigative secrecy.
The former vice chair was indicted and detained on Sept. 26 on charges of colluding in SAMBU Construction stock manipulation with Chair Lee Il-jun of Sambu Construction Co., former CEO Lee Eung-geun, and others in May–June 2023 to take about 36.9 billion won in illicit gains. He failed to appear for the court's substantive warrant review in July and went into hiding, and was arrested in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province, 55 days after fleeing.