‘Fund Rolling’ Lee Jong-pil, Former Vice President of Lime, Sentenced to 10 Years in First Trial

Court: "Irresponsible Fund Management Caused Lime Fund Redemption Suspension Crisis"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] Lee Jong-pil, former vice president of Lime Asset Management (Lime), who is accused of making 'fund rollover' investments to conceal Lime's insolvency, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the first trial.

The Criminal Division 12 of the Seoul Southern District Court (Presiding Judge Oh Sang-yong) sentenced former Vice President Lee to 10 years in prison and a fine of 300 million KRW on the 8th at 11 a.m. on charges including violation of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes (breach of trust). The court also ordered a confiscation of 76,767,852 KRW.

The court stated the sentencing reasons, saying, "The defendant had an obligation to conduct financial investment business fairly, but he accepted bribes and abandoned the integrity expected of a financial investment professional, showing very bad criminal nature," and "His irresponsible fund management led to the suspension of redemptions of Lime Asset Management funds."

The court acquitted the defendant of some of the prosecution's charges. Earlier, during the closing arguments, the prosecution requested a sentence of 15 years in prison and a fine of 4 billion KRW for former Vice President Lee, arguing, "Considering the scale of the damage, the case is serious, and the defendant concealed investment losses to attract new investments. The amount defrauded from investors and the breach of trust damage reached hundreds of billions of KRW, and he obtained private benefits." The prosecution also requested confiscation of approximately 1.88668 billion KRW.

Former Vice President Lee and others were prosecuted on charges of causing losses to Lime by acquiring convertible bonds (CBs) of listed company A, in which Lime had invested 20 billion KRW, through 'rollover' investments worth 20 billion KRW, fearing that Lime's investment losses would be disclosed after the auditor's opinion on company A was rejected.

They also faced charges of causing losses by purchasing CBs of four listed companies, including company A, which had already become insolvent and worthless, at high prices using 90 billion KRW of Lime funds.

Meanwhile, former Vice President Lee was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 4 billion KRW in the first trial on charges of setting up and selling 18 Lime trade finance funds worth about 200 billion KRW by deceiving investors into believing he would directly invest without disclosing the insolvency of overseas trade funds. The appeal trial for this case is currently underway.

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