Prosecution Seeks Prison Sentences for 'Affinity' and 'Anjin' Officials in Kyobo Life Put Option Appeal Trial

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] Prosecutors have requested the same maximum prison sentence of 1 year and 6 months in the second trial as in the first trial for accountants affiliated with Anjin Accounting Corporation and officials of the Affinity Consortium, who are accused of inappropriate collusion to inflate the exercise price during the valuation process of Kyobo Life Insurance's put option (the right to sell shares at a specific price).

On the 23rd, the 1-1 Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court held the second trial sentencing hearing related to the 'Certified Public Accountant Act violation' involving key executives of the Affinity Consortium and accountants from Anjin Accounting Corporation.

At this hearing, the prosecution requested the court to impose the same maximum sentence of 1 year and 6 months imprisonment and a fine exceeding 100 million won as in the first trial, citing clear evidence of illegal collusion by the defendants.

Earlier, at the first trial sentencing hearing, the prosecution sought prison sentences of 1 year and 6 months each for two accountants from Anjin Accounting Corporation, along with a fine of 126.7 million won.

For two officials of the Affinity Consortium and one accountant from Anjin Accounting Corporation who performed calculation tasks, the prosecution requested a prison sentence of 1 year each.

The hearing proceeded with the defense team's presentation, the prosecution's sentencing request, and the defendants' final statements, following the fourth hearing. The prosecution views the essence of this case as Affinity investing in a 24% stake in Kyobo Life Insurance and attempting to disguise an investment loss as an 800 billion won investment gain through false valuation during the process of recovering the investment, but ultimately failing.

Although the case is formally prosecuted as a violation of the Certified Public Accountant Act, an administrative regulation, the prosecution pointed out that it is essentially a large-scale economic crime aiming for an economic benefit of 1 trillion won.

In the previous four second trial hearings, the prosecution presented 244 email evidences indicating violations of the Certified Public Accountant Act by Affinity and Anjin accountants. The emails explicitly showed that Affinity and Anjin conspired to use all possible favorable methods to increase the outcome, anticipating a high likelihood of litigation.

In particular, Affinity sent emails to Anjin instructing modifications to valuation methods, and it is reported that they perfectly shared all necessary data, information, and frequently calculated results at every stage of the process. As a result, the prosecution claims that the put option exercise price per share of Kyobo Life Insurance was raised to 409,000 won, more than twice the market value.

Meanwhile, the sentencing date for the second trial of two Affinity Consortium officials and three accountants from Anjin Accounting Corporation is scheduled for February 1 of next year.

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