'The Second Jo Hee-pal' Kim Seong-hoon... Why He Was Prosecuted Again While Serving 15 Years in Prison

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] Kim Seong-hoon, former CEO of IDS Holdings, who committed a multi-level financial fraud crime worth over 1 trillion won and is called the "Second Jo Hee-pal," has been additionally indicted. Kim is accused of providing bribes worth a total of 63.9 million won to police officers under the pretext of facilitating investigations. Kim is currently serving a confirmed 15-year prison sentence for deceiving more than 10,000 victims and pocketing 1 trillion won.

According to the legal community on the 7th, the Anti-Corruption and Violent Crime Investigation Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Jeong Yong-hwan) recently indicted Kim without detention on charges of bribery.

Kim is accused of giving bribes worth 63.9 million won to police officer Yoon, who leaked investigation information during the police investigation of IDS Holdings. Yoon was sentenced to five years in prison in September 2018 for bribery and official secrets leakage.

Kim was not previously punished for bribery. However, in April last year, IDS Holdings victims filed a complaint with the police, prompting a new investigation. The Intelligent Crime Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, which investigated the case, sent Kim to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in November last year with a recommendation for indictment on bribery charges.

Previously, Kim was indicted for deceiving 12,070 people from November 2011 to August 2016 by promising monthly dividends of 1-10% and principal repayment within a year through FX margin trading investments, pocketing 1.096 trillion won. In 2017, the Supreme Court confirmed a 15-year prison sentence.

FX margin trading is a speculative product involving simultaneous buying and selling of multiple foreign currencies over-the-counter to gain exchange rate profits. It was similar to the "Jo Hee-pal case," where about 70,000 investors were defrauded of 5 trillion won, and thus was called the "Second Jo Hee-pal case."

Earlier, in September 2014, Kim was indicted for embezzling 67.2 billion won from investors and received a confirmed sentence of two years in prison with a three-year probation from the Supreme Court. Despite ongoing criminal trials, he deceived investors again and embezzled investment funds.

At that time, the court sentenced him heavily, stating, "CEO Kim deceived investors by claiming 'profits are being made' without informing them that he had no ability to repay principal and interest." The court particularly pointed out, "While being prosecuted and tried for fraud, he expanded the scale of the crime using the same method."

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