Seoul National University Club Alumni Pocket W20 Billion Using Undisclosed Information

[Anchor]

A group has been caught pocketing tens of billions of won in ill-gotten gains by exchanging undisclosed information obtained while working in the financial sector. Five of the core suspects turned out to be alumni of the same business club at Seoul National University.

Reporter Lee Tae-gwon has the details.

[Reporter]

The Joint Response Task Force against Stock Manipulation has conducted search and seizures at the offices and homes of about ten individuals suspected of trading stocks using undisclosed information.

The core suspects number five.

In their 30s and 40s, all of them are alumni of a business club at Seoul National University and have worked in merger and acquisition-related tasks, such as public tenders, at private equity funds and listed companies.

Having built connections through the same university club and global consulting firms, they were found to have shared favorable undisclosed information with each other over the past five years and utilized it for stock trading.

They also passed on undisclosed information acquired during their work to family members and acquaintances, using a method of purchasing related stocks at low prices and disposing of them at high prices after the information was made public.

It was revealed that they reaped illicit profits amounting to around 20 billion won across five stocks.

[Hwang Sun-o / Head of the Joint Response Task Force against Stock Manipulation: The case is very grave given that the source of the information consisted of professionals bound by strict confidentiality obligations, and that the information spread even to family members and acquaintances, widely expanding unfair trading practices.]

The joint task force intensively investigated abnormal transactions captured during market monitoring starting last May and confirmed the information-sharing circumstances among the core suspects.

Simultaneously with the search and seizure, freeze orders were placed on their securities accounts.

The task force plans to file complaints against those involved and impose administrative fines equivalent to up to twice the illicit profits.

In October of last year, eight people, including a securities firm executive and their spouse, were also caught pocketing billions of won using undisclosed information.

Voices are growing louder calling for an overhaul of the penalty levels and internal control systems for crimes committed by financial experts.

(Camera Reporter: Seol Chi-hwan, Video Editor: Jeong Yong-hwa, Designer: Kim Ye-ji)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.