Prosecutors investigating suspected collusion on oil prices by refiners have moved to detain HD Hyundai Oilbank employees.
According to legal sources on the 15th, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office Fair Trade Investigation Division (led by Chief Prosecutor Na Hee-seok) recently sought arrest warrants for two employees of HD Hyundai Oilbank's pricing department on charges of violating the Fair Trade Act.
Earlier on Mar. 23, prosecutors carried out searches and seizures at four refiners—SK Energy, GS Caltex, S-Oil, and HD Hyundai Oilbank—and at the Korea Petroleum Association.
The companies are suspected of restricting competition by prearranging to arbitrarily raise or freeze prices of domestically distributed fuel and petroleum products.
President Lee Jae-myung has said that authorities must respond firmly to unjust profiteering linked to oil price increases driven by global instability, including the Iran war. Minister of Justice Jung Sung-ho also directed a stern response, calling it "a serious antisocial criminal act that seeks to turn the public's pain into an opportunity for profiteering."
The Seoul Central District Court plans to hold the warrant hearing (a pre-arrest interrogation of the suspect) on the 18th.