Prosecution Seeks 15-Year Prison Sentence for Lee Jong-pil, Key Figure in Lime Scandal

Lee Jong-pil, former vice president of Lime
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghoon Jeong] The prosecution has requested a 15-year prison sentence for former Lime Asset Management Vice President Jongpil Lee, the key suspect in the 'Lime Asset Management (Lime) scandal' that caused damages worth approximately 1.6 trillion KRW.

On the 28th, at the Seoul Southern District Court Criminal Division 12 (Presiding Judge Sangyong Oh), during Lee's final trial, the prosecution requested a sentence of 15 years imprisonment, a fine of 3 billion KRW, and a confiscation order amounting to approximately 1.44 billion KRW. They also requested 10 years imprisonment and a 500 million KRW fine for Jongjun Won, Lime's CEO, and 7 years imprisonment and a 300 million KRW fine for Mr. Lee, who worked as the head of the marketing division.

The prosecution stated, "The defendant's crimes go beyond simple 'incomplete sales'; they actively deceived victims by concealing the fund's insolvency and selling the fund with false information to secure redemption payments," adding, "This is an unprecedented case that undermined citizens' trust in the fairness of the capital market."

They continued, "The defendant is shifting responsibility for concealing the fund's insolvency onto Shinhan Financial Investment's PBS side even during the trial," and emphasized, "It is necessary to identify who played what role in the large-scale redemption suspension incident and hold them accountable to restore the soundness of the capital market."

Since May 2017, Lime invested in five overseas trade finance funds using fund investment money. Among these, insolvency occurred in the IIG fund, and former Vice President Lee and others were indicted on charges of continuing to sell the fund while changing the management method to prevent the insolvency from being revealed despite being aware of it.

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