Police Seek Arrest Warrant for Close Associate of 'Kim Hoejang,' Lime Funding Source... Embezzlement Charges

Starmobility Internal Director Suspected of Embezzling 16.1 Billion KRW from Suwon Passenger Company
Investigation Focuses on Chairman Kim's Whereabouts... Prosecution and Police Intensify Efforts to Arrest Chairman Kim

Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency / Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] The police have requested an arrest warrant for an associate of Kim Bong-hyun, chairman of Star Mobility, who has been identified as the 'funding source' of Lime Asset Management, which caused a buyback suspension scandal worth 1.6 trillion won.

The Intelligent Crime Investigation Unit of the Gyeonggi Southern Provincial Police Agency announced on the 1st that they have applied for an arrest warrant against Mr. A, an inside director of Star Mobility, on charges of embezzlement under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes.

Mr. A is suspected of embezzling 16.1 billion won of company funds from Suwon Passenger, a bus company in the Gyeonggi area, together with Chairman Kim from the end of 2018 to early last year.

The police had been investigating Chairman Kim, Mr. A, and Mr. B, a former general accounting executive of Suwon Passenger and an accomplice, since January last year, but they disappeared before the pre-trial detention hearing (warrant review) in December last year.

In particular, Mr. B left the country earlier than the others and went into hiding, causing the investigation to stall for a while.

However, the police judged that Chairman Kim and Mr. A were still in the country since there were no records of their overseas departure, and continued tracking them, arresting Mr. A on the 30th of last month at an undisclosed location in Gyeonggi Province where the Star Mobility board meeting was held.

The police plan to pressure the arrested Mr. A to capture Chairman Kim, but it is known that Mr. A is currently not disclosing any information about Chairman Kim's whereabouts.

Chairman Kim was identified as the "chairman who does enormous lobbying" in a recorded conversation recently made public by Jang, the head of the Banpo WM Center at Daishin Securities, a sales company of Lime Asset Management, and is also suspected of embezzling 51.7 billion won of Star Mobility's company funds.

Accordingly, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office, which is investigating the Lime scandal and the Star Mobility embezzlement case, has formed a capture team to track Chairman Kim.

A police official said, "The police are only handling the Suwon Passenger case involving Chairman Kim, so after capturing him and completing the investigation, they expect to hand him over to the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office, which will then investigate the Lime scandal and the Star Mobility case," adding, "We will capture Chairman Kim as soon as possible through Mr. A and others."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.