Trial on Kyobo Life Insurance Put Option 'Corporate Value' Manipulation... Continues from Next Month

Prosecutors Indict 2 Affinity Consortium Officials and 4 Accountants

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyung-gil] The first trial for the accountant affiliated with Samdeok Accounting Firm, who was indicted by the prosecution on charges of violating the Certified Public Accountant Act in relation to the Kyobo Life Insurance put option (stock purchase warrant) conflict, will be held on August 10.

According to the insurance industry on the 24th, the court initially planned to hold the first trial on this day, but the date was postponed to August due to the defendant's legal team's request for a change.

Currently, six people have been indicted by the prosecution for manipulating Kyobo Life Insurance's corporate value evaluation, including four accountants, among them accountant A from Samdeok Accounting Firm, and two private equity fund officials. Including one private equity fund official whose indictment was suspended due to unknown whereabouts, a total of seven people are facing charges.

The prosecution indicted A on charges of violating the Certified Public Accountant Act by copying a report prepared by Anjin Accounting Firm as is, while performing corporate value evaluation work commissioned by Apealma Capital, a financial investor of Kyobo Life Insurance.

A is accused of falsely reporting as if he had directly conducted the corporate value evaluation work for Kyobo Life Insurance, although he did not, and of citing the evaluation method and evaluation amount from Anjin Accounting Firm's report, prepared around the same time, without even correcting simple errors.

The prosecution previously indicted key executives of the Affinity Consortium, composed of Affinity Equity Partners, IMM PE, Baring PE, and the Singapore Investment Corporation, as well as accountants from Deloitte Anjin Accounting Firm. The third preparatory hearing for their trial will be held on the 7th of next month.

The Affinity Consortium exercised the put option to Chairman Shin Chang-jae of Kyobo Life Insurance in October 2018 and commissioned Anjin Accounting Firm for corporate value evaluation, while Apealma Capital exercised the put option in November of the same year and commissioned Samdeok Accounting Firm for the valuation.

Following a prolonged shareholder dispute, Kyobo Life Insurance filed complaints against them, revealing allegations that the Affinity Consortium and Apealma Capital exercised the put option against Chairman Shin based on falsely prepared reports through illegal acts.

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