Prosecutors indicted a Daesang executive suspected of colluding to fix prices for starch and sweeteners worth in the 10 trillion won range, placing the executive on trial in custody.
According to legal sources on the 16th, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office's Fair Trade Investigation Division (Director General Na Hee-seok) indicted a person surnamed Kim, head of Daesang's business division, on charges of violating the Fair Trade Act, and detained the person pending trial.
Kim, the division head, is accused of prearranging sales prices for starch sweeteners with executives of rival companies including CJ CheilJedang, Samyang Corporation, and Sajo Group CPK, and agreeing on prices during bidding processes by major end users.
These companies was found to have engaged in collusion exceeding 10 trillion won over the past eight years.
On the 23rd, prosecutors raided four starch sweetener companies and launched a full-fledged investigation by exercising the authority to request the Korea Fair Trade Commission to file criminal complaints twice. On the 31st of the same month, prosecutors sought arrest warrants on Fair Trade Act violation charges for Kim, the division head; a person surnamed Lim, Daesang's CEO; and a person surnamed Lee, CEO of Sajo Group CPK.
The court issued an arrest warrant for Kim, the division head. However, the requests for warrants for CEO Lim and CEO Lee were dismissed on the grounds of "insufficient substantiation of collusive conduct" and "no concerns about destruction of evidence or flight," respectively.
In response, prosecutors again sought an arrest warrant on the 10th for CEO Lim on the same charge, but the court rejected it again, saying, "It is difficult to conclude there is sufficient substantiation of the criminal allegations to justify detaining the suspect."
Starch sweeteners are starch-based products such as corn syrup, fructose, and oligosaccharides, mainly used to make snacks, beverages, and dairy products.
Prosecutors have recently been intensively investigating price-fixing cases for essential goods linked to consumer prices. By February, prosecutors had brought 52 executives and employees of companies to trial for participating in collusion worth about 10 trillion won in the flour, sugar, and electricity sectors.