Former Appropriator Illegally Took in 47.6 Billion Once Again

Former Human Innotek CEO Lee Sung-yong, the representative first-generation corporate figure caught manipulating his company`s stock price, during his sentence suspension period, raked in some 47.6 billion won of illegal funds.

Securities Future Committee under the umbrella of the Financial Supervisory Commission accused Mr. Lee and his 10 employees for allegedly committing illegal trading by manipulating stock prices. The Committee also added some 15 related people and two corporate bodies to the list while imposing some 139,500,000 won in penalties to G Company, not publicized as its major shareholder.

According to the Committee, Mr. Lee along with Mr. H allegedly mobilized some 24.3 billion won and 240 accounts to manipulate stock prices of K and G companies from May, 2001 to January, 2002. Lee also appropriated 22.4 billion won increase capital for G, after securing management rights of G and K.

An investigator at the FSC said that “Lee earned some 1.9 billion won through stock manipulation, and a total of 47.6 billion won including the appropriated 21 billion won and 24.4 billion won.”

Lee was sentenced to seven years after being indicted on counts of appropriating bank loans and public money back in 1998, but was released on suspension twice last December due to health problems. This was during this period that he committed these illegal activities once again.

The Committee also sent Chunmi Lube to the prosecution for its intentional omission of financial loans. Starion, Saerim and ARD Holdings were put on “one-year probation” for their inconsistent recording of business transactions.

Dong-Won Kim daviskim@donga.com