The side of Koo Young-bae, the Qoo10 CEO who is already on trial over the Tmon and WeMakePrice non-settlement scandal, also denied in court the additional fraud charge worth about 800 million won. The court decided to consolidate the newly indicted case with the existing non-settlement case for a joint trial.
The Seoul Central District Court Criminal Agreement Division 24 (Chief Judge Lee Young-seon) on the 21st held the first hearing for eight people, including CEO Koo, former Tmon CEO Ryu Gwang-jin, and former WeMakePrice CEO Ryu Hwa-hyeon, who were additionally indicted on charges of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Economic Crimes (fraud).
Prosecutors believe CEO Koo, Qoo10 Technology CEO Kim Hyo-jong, and Qoo10 finance chief Lee Si-joon committed the crime together. They judge that Qoo10 had already lost the ability to pay settlement funds but deceived sellers into believing payments would be made normally, thereby taking 844 million won.
The defendants did not acknowledge the charges that day. The court said it would combine this additional indictment with the main Tmon and WeMakePrice non-settlement case already being heard and try them together.
Koo and others were indicted in Dec. 2024 on charges of embezzling settlement funds and other monies totaling about 1.85 trillion won that should have been paid to Tmon and WeMakePrice sellers, and siphoning off more than 100 billion won in affiliate funds under the pretense of lending and consulting expense. Prosecutors, while conducting supplementary investigations into victim complaints, later identified a separate fraud charge worth about 800 million won and again sent the case to trial last month.
A separate case over unpaid wages and severance is also under way for Koo and the former CEOs Ryu. They were additionally indicted in June last year on charges of failing to pay 5.621 billion won in wages to 613 workers and 20.7413 billion won in severance to 733 workers, and that case is being heard by the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Single Division 18 (Chief Judge Yoon Young-su).