SEOUL– A Seoul court on Friday acquitted the chief of a local asset management firm indicted on charges of selling fraudulent funds worth 134.8 billion won (US$107.1 million) and causing huge losses to customers.
The Seoul Southern District Court delivered a not guilty verdict for Jang Ha-won, saying it has not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he had deceived the victims or lied about crucial facts about the funds.
Jang, the CEO of Discovery Asset Management Co., was indicted on charges of selling investment funds named Discovery to around 370 investors by deceiving them that the products were safe assets with high returns, according to prosecutors.
The funds were marketed through the state-run Industrial Bank of Korea and a dozen brokerage houses between 2017 and 2019, they said.
However, their redemption was suspended in 2019, after U.S. security authorities froze the assets of a U.S. firm that was operating the funds upon learning it made false reports.
The fund fiasco has drawn keen public attention over not just the scale of the losses to customers but also because of some high-profile figures allegedly involved.
Among them was Jang’s elder brother, Ha-sung, a former Korean ambassador to China under the former President Moon Jae-in administration.
Source: Yonhap News Agency