Pair arrested for stock manipulation

The Seoul District Prosecutor`s Office arrested Jang Ki-Hwan, 33, former securities company employee and Park Sang-Hoon, 48, president of Tera, on charges of securing unlawful capital gains amounting to 4 billion won by manipulating the stock price of Tera, a company listed on the Kosdaq market.

Prosecutors said that Park had spread false rumors last September through domestic newspapers that his company had attracted US$5 million in foreign capital to raise the company`s stock price. After raising the stock price by doing so, he sold 270,000 shares and enjoyed 2.4 billion won in capital gains.

Also, Park provided inside information about Tera`s offering of new issues to Jang last May and sold his 10,000 shares before posting the information.

In April 1999, Jang artificially raised the stock price by placing false buy orders at high prices or by placing actual orders by utilizing customers` deposits, and earned 1.82 billion won in capital gains through such stock trading, according to the prosecutors.