Over 70 Optimus Investment Destinations... Prosecution Focuses on 'Account Tracking'

Detailed Investigation into the Use of Over 1 Trillion Won Investment Funds... Possible Confirmation of CEO Kim's Secret Fund Whereabouts

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The prosecution investigating the Optimus Asset Management fund fraud case is accelerating account tracing to find out where over 1 trillion won of investment funds were used. In this process, there is also a possibility of confirming the whereabouts of slush funds of Kim Jaehyun, the CEO of Optimus.

According to the legal community on the 2nd, the Economic Crime Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Jumincheol) will begin detailed account tracing of Optimus investment funds this week. After significantly reinforcing the investigation team last month, the prosecution has been investigating the investment destinations of Optimus funds divided by period. It has been confirmed that about 70 out of hundreds of investment destinations have been identified.

The investigation team has focused its efforts on the flow of funds between Optimus management and major investment destinations, with a representative case being the investigation of a broker who received lobbying funds from CEO Kim and promised to deliver them to a former employee of the Financial Supervisory Service. The investigation team conducted searches and seizures at the office and residence of broker Kim in Siheung-si, Gyeonggi Province, and also summoned and investigated the Financial Supervisory Service employee.

Now, the investigation team plans to expand the scope of account tracing to about 70 investment destinations to examine whether there were additional lobbying suspicions. Among the 70 places are paper companies such as Trustall and Septilian, which served as financial gateways for Optimus. The accounts of CEO Kim and Director Lee Dongyeol, the second-largest shareholder of Optimus, have already been investigated, but now the team plans to include the connection links with investment destination accounts, any additional illegal acts by management, and the flow of funds that went to third-party accounts as targets of tracing.

On the 22nd, search warrants were executed on the office of Hwaseong Industry, the largest shareholder company of ship supplies manufacturer Haeduck Powerway in Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi Province, the residence of CEO Park, the office of company M in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, which is a trading partner of Haeduck Powerway’s subsidiary Sebo Tech, and the residence of related person Oh. This is in the same context. Haeduck Powerway is a place where suspicions of Optimus’s capital-free mergers and acquisitions have been raised.

As the scope of account tracing expands, the investigation team expects to be able to confirm CEO Kim’s slush funds in the process. A team official explained, "It is a process of examining the overall flow of funds, and that part (the whereabouts of CEO Kim’s slush funds) will also be included." Moreover, it is known that the investigation team has secured statements from related parties that CEO Kim invested 20 billion won in the profit rights of a resort business corporation, aiming for a future comeback.

However, the due diligence results of the Optimus funds scheduled to be released this month could be a variable. Due diligence is a preliminary step to confirm recoverable assets among investment details and to determine the loss rate. Since the expected loss amount must be confirmed to request damage relief procedures from financial authorities, if there are many discrepancies with the prosecution’s investigation results in the future, problems may arise in the dispute mediation process. In this regard, the investigation team is also investigating whether there was collusion among Optimus Asset Management (fund design), NH Investment & Securities (fund sales), Hana Bank (custodian bank), and Korea Securities Depository (administrative trustee) during the formation and sales process of the Optimus funds. Currently, all fund-related companies claim to be victims.

Meanwhile, a joint inspection by the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office on the case requested for investigation by the Korea Radio Promotion Association regarding the Optimus funds is also beginning in earnest. Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae instructed last week, right after the Ministry of Justice’s national audit, to re-examine the process in which the prosecution dismissed the case without indictment. The Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office plan to discuss the operation of the inspection team and will soon start the inspection by securing case materials of the dismissal at that time with the cooperation of the investigation team.

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