The special counsel team led by Min Joong-ki, which has been investigating various allegations related to Kim Keon-hee, asked the court to amend the indictment to correct the amount of alleged illicit gains in the Well Biotec stock manipulation case. It said the amount is 21.5 billion won, not 30.2 billion won as initially stated in the indictment.
Legal observers say it is unusual to reduce by nearly 30% during trial the amount of illicit gains, a key benchmark for sentencing in a stock manipulation case.
According to legal sources on the 11th, the special counsel filed a request the previous day with the Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Agreement Division 32 (Presiding Judge Ryu Kyung-jin) to amend the indictment against former Well Biotec CEO Gu Se-hyun. Gu was indicted in Nov. last year on charges including violations of the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act and is on trial.
The special counsel believes Gu and others spread rumors from May to Oct. 2023 as if Well Biotec were participating in Ukraine's reconstruction project, pushed up the share price, and then sold shares at high prices to pocket illicit gains. In fact, Well Biotec's stock rose from the 1,600-won range in late May 2023 to the 5,200-won range two months later, climbing nearly threefold.
The special counsel initially stated in the indictment that Gu's group obtained about 30.2 billion won in illicit gains. However, after reanalyzing the flow of funds, it calculated the amount at 21.5 billion won and requested to amend the indictment.
In detail, the illicit gains attributed to former CEO Gu, who transferred management control of Well Biotec, Sambu Engineering & Construction Chairman Lee Il-jun, and former Vice Chairman Lee Ki-hoon decreased by 34%, from about 8.915 billion won to 5.886 billion won.
The illicit gains attributed to Well Biotec Chairman Yang Nam-hee and Vice Chairman Park Kwang-nam, who took over management control, also fell by about 26.5%, from 21.296 billion won to 15.646 billion won.
The special counsel's side explained that it adjusted the amounts to reflect fund flows confirmed during the investigation. An official from the special counsel team said, "As we traced the money through additional indictments and searches and seizures, we excluded amounts found to have flowed to parties other than the defendants."
However, in legal circles, there is a view that it is rare for the amount of illicit gains to shrink by nearly 30% during trial. A lawyer who formerly served as a presiding judge said, "It is true that calculating illicit gains in a stock manipulation case is not easy, but it is unusual for the amount to change significantly during the proceedings."
A criminal law specialist lawyer said, "There are cases where the amount of illicit gains is reduced in part, but instances of a decrease of nearly 30% are rare," adding, "In effect, it could be seen as the special counsel acknowledging that its initial calculations were wrong."
Meanwhile, some of the recent cases indicted by the Kim Keon-hee special counsel have stirred controversy as the courts issued acquittals or dismissals. In Jan., the Seoul Central District Court dismissed the case against a Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport assistant director indicted over alleged preferential treatment in the Yangpyeong Expressway case, as well as the evidence-destruction charge against former Unification Church World Headquarters head Yoon Young-ho.
The reason was that they did not fall under the investigative scope defined by the special counsel law. The case of Kim Ye-seong, the "Kim Keon-hee butler," who faces embezzlement charges, was also dismissed last month for the same reason.
At the trial held the previous day, former and current Well Biotec executives also argued for dismissal, saying, "This case does not fall under the investigative scope defined by the special counsel law."