Former Shinhan Investment Corp. Head Sentenced to 8 Years for Lime Bad Fund Sales Confirmed

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] The former executive of Shinhan Financial Investment was sentenced to prison for continuing to sell Lime Asset Management's private equity funds without informing customers of their insolvency.

The Supreme Court's 3rd Division (Presiding Justice Ahn Cheol-sang) confirmed the original sentence on the 5th, which sentenced Im, former head of Shinhan Financial Investment's PBS Division (53), who was indicted for violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes (fraud, bribery, etc.) and the Capital Markets Act, to 8 years in prison and a fine of 300 million won.

Im was charged with selling fund products worth 48 billion won to general investors through Shinhan Financial Investment without disclosing the fact that there was insolvency in overseas funds.

He was also accused of changing the fund structure by combining 17 profitable funds with 17 insolvent funds to conceal the insolvency of Lime funds, thereby transferring losses to sound funds, and of receiving 16.5 million won in exchange for investing 500 million won of Shinhan Financial Investment's funds in a certain listed company.

The first and second trials recognized Im's guilt, stating that "he seriously damaged the general public's trust in the fairness of financial institution employees' duties," and sentenced him to 8 years in prison and a fine of 300 million won.

The court pointed out that although it was proven that Im engaged in a Ponzi scheme using new subscribers' funds to conceal the fund insolvency, he shifted responsibility to former Lime Vice President Lee Jong-pil and others, claiming it was merely "a result of Lime's fund management," and showed no remorse.

The Supreme Court, which re-examined the case following Im's appeal, also confirmed the punishment, finding no legal errors in the lower courts' rulings.

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