John Lee, CEO of Meritz Asset Management, "Did Not Violate Capital Markets Act"

"P2P Private Equity Funds All Profitable... Three Liquidated After 10%+ Returns"
"P2P Company Owned by Spouse Not Considered Interested Party"

[Asia Economy Reporters Junho Hwang, Yoonju Hwang] John Lee, CEO of Meritz Asset Management, recently addressed allegations of illegal investments under borrowed names, stating, "There was no violation of the Capital Markets Act, including pursuit of private gain, breach of trust, or restrictions on transactions with interested parties."

In a phone interview with Asia Economy on the 20th, CEO Lee denied the allegations, saying, "Regarding suspicions of private gain, breach of trust, and violations of restrictions on transactions with interested parties, there were no losses in the relevant fund, and the company partly owned by my spouse is not considered a legal interested party, so there should be no legal issues."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The Financial Supervisory Service conducted an on-site inspection of Meritz Asset Management from May 23 to June 7 following allegations of illegal investments. Authorities are investigating whether CEO Lee borrowed his spouse’s name to invest in an acquaintance’s company and whether Meritz Asset Management’s investment in this company’s ‘real estate-related online investment-linked finance (P2P)’ products violated the Capital Markets Act. ▷Related article on page 2

The P2P company in question was established in 2016 by an acquaintance of CEO Lee. Lee’s spouse invested 200 million KRW (6.57% stake) in this company. Subsequently, Meritz Asset Management invested a total of 32.6 billion KRW from four private funds?7.7 billion KRW in Fund 1, 6.2 billion KRW in Fund 2, 6.8 billion KRW in Fund 3, and 11.9 billion KRW in Fund 4?into this company.

CEO Lee strongly denied these allegations, emphasizing that investors suffered no losses. He explained, "Looking at the returns, Fund 1 was liquidated with a 14.3% return, Fund 2 with 13%, Fund 3 with 12.9%, and Fund 4 is maintaining a 47.7% return (10.85% annually). There has been no harm to investors whatsoever." He added, "The profit my spouse gained from this investment over five years is about 10 million KRW, approximately 2 million KRW annually."

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