Prosecutors sent to trial a ring of market manipulators that included a stock rigging specialist and a securities firm executive, an influencer's husband, and a former soccer player.
The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office Joint Investigation Team on Financial and securities Crimes (Director General Shin Dong-hwan) said on May 8 it investigated a KOSDAQ market-listed company stock manipulation case and caught 10 stock rigging offenders. Three ringleaders were indicted and detained on charges including violations of the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act, and six accomplices were indicted without detention or summarily indicted. One person is on a wanted list, and prosecution has been suspended.
Prosecutors found that roles were divided to manipulate prices by a corporate raiding specialist who claimed to be the protagonist of the 2009 film "The Scam," as well as a securities firm executive, an influencer's husband and financier, and a former soccer player.
They are accused of mobilizing multiple borrowed-name securities accounts from December 2024 to April 2025 to manipulate the share price of a KOSDAQ market stock. Prosecutors believe they rigged the price through 28.9 billion won in transactions, reaping at least 1.4 billion won in illicit gains.
This case was the first related to price manipulation to be opened based on a "leniency application for penalty mitigation by a voluntary reporter" filed with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.
Prosecutors said, "We will do our utmost to strip criminals of the sources of their illicit proceeds, including seizing not only the unlawful gains from price manipulation but also the principal that was used to facilitate the manipulation, to the very end."