Employees of a major law firm who were put on trial for allegedly viewing a lawyer's emails without permission and using nonpublic information to reap illicit gains were sentenced to prison in the first trial.
The 13th Criminal Division of the Seoul Southern District Court (Presiding Judge Kim Sang-yeon, Director General) on the 10th sentenced a person surnamed Ga, 40, indicted on charges of violating the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act, to three years and six months in prison and a fine of 6 billion won, and a person surnamed Nam, 41, to three years in prison and a fine of 1.6 billion won.
The court also ordered the forfeiture of approximately 1.82 billion won and approximately 520 million won from Ga and Nam, respectively.
Three others, including a person surnamed Go, 32, an employee of a private equity fund manager accused of committing the crimes with them, were each given one year to one year and six months in prison, suspended for two to three years, and fines of 30 million to 350 million won. The forfeiture amounts range from approximately 110 million to approximately 220 million won.
The court said, "The defendants obtained nonpublic information by illegal means and used it for stock transactions," and added, "For more than two years, they used nonpublic information to buy and sell stocks and even mobilized family-name accounts and large loans."
It continued, "This is a serious crime that undermines the fairness and credibility of the capital market and is highly blameworthy," and explained the sentencing by saying, "They spent the illicit gains on high-priced foreign cars and an apartment, then hurried to liquidate them to avoid forfeiture when a financial authorities investigation began, showing poor post-offense circumstances."
Ga and Nam, former IT staff at Lee & Ko, were indicted on charges of repeatedly accessing corporate advisory team lawyers' email accounts from Aug. 2022 to Jun. 2024 to extract nonpublic information such as clients' tender offers, paid-in capital increases, and stock purchase agreements, and using it for stock transactions.
The illicit gains they obtained using nonpublic information were found to be about 1.8 billion won and about 500 million won, respectively. The court determined that Ga and Nam also used money amassed through family-name accounts or loans for stock transactions.
Three others, including a person surnamed Go, who worked at an investment advisory firm under private equity fund manager A, were also put on trial on charges of directly conducting stock transactions with nonpublic information learned from meetings preparing for a tender offer or investment materials, or passing it to acquaintances.