Eight firms indicted on inside trading charges

The prosecution imposed a total of 4.68 billion won in penalties on eight public corporations, including Korea Highway Corp. (KHC) and Korea National Housing Corp. (KNHC), on charges of engaging in unfair inside transactions and unreasonable trade. The KHC and KNHC were indicted on charges of repeatedly violating the fair trade law, thus becoming the first public corporations to be so charged.

In announcing the results of its investigation Sunday, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) ordered the eight companies to make public their crimes in local newspapers. The FTC uncovered a total of 264.2 billion won worth of inside transactions at five public corporations. The figure breaks down to 258.6 billion won for KNHC, 3.8 billion won for KHC, 1.2 billion won for Korea Land Corp. (KLC), 459 million won for Korea Water Resources Corp. (KWRC) and 222 million won for Korea Gas Corp. (KGC).

The firms were found to have extended a combined total of 3.5 billion won in support to their seven subsidiaries through inside trading. Meanwhile, the volume of unfair trading, under which the public corporations covered various expenses for their subcontractors by making use of their monopolistic or dominant market positions, came to 1.8 billion won for KNHC, 1.2 billion won for KGC, 800 million won for Korea Agricultural and Rural Infrastructure Corp. (KARICO), 659 million won for KHC, 203 million won for Korea District Heating Corp., 125 million won for KLC, 42 million won for Korea Electric Power Data Network (KDN), and 15 million won for KWRC.

Yonhap