Prosecutors Request Arrest Warrant for Skin&Skin Advisor Suspected of Involvement in Optimus Scandal

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The prosecution has requested an arrest warrant for Yoo Mo, the chief advisor of the new business division of the KOSDAQ-listed cosmetics company 'Skin&Skin,' in connection with the Optimus Asset Management fund fraud case.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office Investigation Division 1 (Chief Prosecutor Oh Hyun-chul) announced on the 21st that it had requested an arrest warrant for Yoo (39) on the 20th on charges including fraud and embezzlement under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, unfair trading under the Capital Markets Act, and forgery of private documents.

Yoo's pre-arrest detention hearing (warrant substantive examination) will be held on the 22nd at 10:30 a.m. at the Seoul Central District Court, presided over by Chief Judge Choi Chang-hoon, who is in charge of warrants.

Yoo's charges are mainly related to the mask distribution business involving Optimus, but specific details have not been confirmed.

Last month, Optimus received an investment of 15 billion KRW from Skin&Skin under the pretext of the mask distribution business. There are suspicions that this fund was used by Kim Jae-hyun, CEO of Optimus (50, detained), and others to prevent the suspension of fund redemptions.

The company on the Optimus side that received the 15 billion KRW advance payment from Skin&Skin is E-People Plus. E-People Plus is 100% owned by Yoon Mo (43, detained), who is a director of Optimus and the representative lawyer of H Law Firm.

The prosecution applied charges including fraud, embezzlement under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, and forgery of private documents after detecting circumstances that Yoo was involved in the fund fraud since June 2017.

The prosecution is also investigating the fact that the Korea Radio Promotion Association (Radio Promotion Association), an institution under the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), invested 74.8 billion KRW in Optimus and later withdrew the investment during this period. Yoo is suspected to have been involved in this matter as well.

The Radio Promotion Association invested 74.8 billion KRW in Optimus from June 2017 to March 2018 through the Broadcasting and Communications Development Fund and the Information and Communications Promotion Fund.

The MSIT initiated an audit in 2018, detected violations of regulations by the Radio Promotion Association, and demanded disciplinary action against those involved. Consequently, the Radio Promotion Association withdrew the investment and requested the prosecution to investigate Optimus officials in October of the same year.

Earlier, the prosecution arrested three people, including CEO Kim, the second-largest shareholder Lee Mo (45), and Yoon, on the 7th. Lee is the CEO of loan company D, where funds from the Optimus fund flowed. The arrest warrant request for director Song Mo (50) was dismissed at that time.

They are accused of raising thousands of billions of KRW from investors under the pretext of investing in public institution accounts receivable, then forging documents and actually investing in loan companies and insolvent companies.

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