The Joint Response Team for Eradicating Stock Manipulation has conducted raids on the offices and residences of around 10 individuals suspected of trading stocks using undisclosed information.
The five key suspects are in their 30s and 40s, and all graduated from the same business club at Seoul National University. They have worked in mergers and acquisitions, including public tender offers, at private equity firms and listed companies.
[Reporter Lee Tae-kwon: Having built ties through the same university club and global consulting firms, they reportedly shared favorable undisclosed information with each other over the past five years and used it for stock trading.]
They also passed on undisclosed information acquired during their work to family members and acquaintances, buying related stocks at low prices and selling them at high prices after the information was made public.
It was revealed that they pocketed a total of 20 billion won in ill-gotten gains across five stocks.
[Hwang Sun-oh, Head of the Joint Response Team for Eradicating Stock Manipulation: This case is extremely serious given that the source of the information consisted of professionals bound by strict confidentiality obligations, and that the information spread to family and acquaintances, vastly expanding unfair trading activities.]
The joint response team has intensively investigated abnormal transactions detected during market monitoring since last May, confirming circumstantial evidence that the key suspects shared information.
Simultaneously with the raids on the 29th, a suspension of payments was placed on their securities accounts.
The response team plans to file complaints against the individuals involved and impose administrative fines equivalent to up to twice their ill-gotten gains.
In October of last year, eight individuals, including a securities firm executive and their spouse, were caught pocketing billions of won using undisclosed information.
Calls are growing louder to overhaul the penalty levels for financial expert crimes and internal control systems.
Sticking Together to Pocket 20 Billion Won... The Ugly Connections of Seoul National University Alumni (September 29, 2026, 8 News)
(Reported by Lee Tae-kwon, Produced by Bae Jun-hwi, Camera by Seol Chi-hwan, Video Editing by Jung Yong-hwa, Design by Yeji Kim, Production: SBS Digital News)
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