'Fraud Involvement' Lime Trade Finance Fund Accounting Audit Completed...Concerns Over Total Loss

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jihwan] The accounting audit for Pluto TF No. 1 (Trade Finance Fund), one of Lime Asset Management's private equity funds with suspended redemptions worth about 1.6 trillion KRW, will conclude on the 3rd. Industry insiders believe that the Trade Finance Fund is likely to incur a total loss due to its involvement in a Ponzi scheme by a U.S. hedge fund.

According to the financial investment industry, Samil Accounting Corporation, which is conducting the audit of the Trade Finance Fund, will deliver the final report to Lime Asset Management within the day. Samil originally planned to complete the audit by the end of March, but it was delayed due to COVID-19 and the fact that the assets are overseas. A Lime Asset Management official stated, "There will be no public disclosure of the report received from Samil, and it will only be shared with the distributors."

The report is expected to be an interim audit report. It has been confirmed that there was no verification work during the audit process to predict the recovery rate of the investors' returned amounts. The audit only verified whether the assets and contracts invested in by the fund actually exist. After receiving the report on the day, Lime plans to adjust the valuation prices of each asset based on it and inform the distributors of the expected profits and losses.

Currently, the Trade Finance Fund has already confirmed losses of about half, and additional losses are also feared. Lime Asset Management invested in five overseas trade finance funds worth 500 million USD (approximately 606.5 billion KRW), among which the International Investment Group (IIG) fund is under liquidation after being sanctioned by U.S. financial authorities in November last year for selling fake loan bonds, including deregistration and freezing of fund assets. The principal of 100 million USD has already been written off. If the fund incurs principal losses exceeding 200 million USD, investors will lose their entire investment.

Meanwhile, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) will begin an on-site investigation into the Lime incident starting from the 9th. The FSS plans to first initiate dispute resolution procedures for the Trade Finance Fund, which has been accused of fraud such as concealment of insolvency and manipulation of yield rates.

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