Prosecutors Reject Arrest Warrant Request for Jang Ha-won in 'Discovery Fund' Case... Request for Supplementary Investigation

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Gyumin] The prosecution has rejected the arrest warrant request for Jang Ha-won, CEO (63) of Discovery Asset Management (Discovery), who is accused of causing damage worth approximately 250 billion KRW due to the suspension of redemption of a private equity fund.

On the 11th, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office announced that it returned the arrest warrant request for CEO Jang, submitted by the Financial Crime Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, the day before.

A prosecution official stated, "We requested supplementary investigation from the police, and it is difficult to disclose the reasons for the rejection."

The police applied for an arrest warrant for CEO Jang on the 6th on charges of violating the Capital Markets Act and fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes.

The Discovery fund was sold through commercial banks such as Hana Bank and IBK Industrial Bank, as well as securities firms from 2017 to 2019. According to the Financial Supervisory Service, as of the end of April last year, the total outstanding balance that banks and others could not repay due to the suspension of redemption was estimated to be about 256.2 billion KRW. CEO Jang is the younger brother of Jang Ha-sung, former Chief of Staff to the Blue House and Ambassador to China, and established Discovery Asset Management in 2016.

Accordingly, the police conducted three rounds of summons investigations of CEO Jang to examine the sales process of the fund.

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