Prosecution Seeks 8-Year Prison Sentence for Kwon Oh-soo in 'Deutsche Motors Stock Manipulation' Case

Kwon Oh-su, former chairman of Deutsch Motors
Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The prosecution has requested an 8-year prison sentence for former Chairman Kwon Oh-soo, who was indicted for manipulating the stock price of Deutsche Motors.

On the 16th, at the sentencing hearing held at the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 23 (Presiding Judge Jo Byung-gu), the prosecution asked the court to sentence defendant Kwon Oh-soo to 8 years in prison, impose a fine of 15 billion KRW, and confiscate approximately 8.13 billion KRW.

The prosecution pointed out, "This crime disrupted the stock market and hindered fair competition. The case itself is very serious, and the crime was carried out in an organized and planned manner over a long period, with funds mobilized amounting to hundreds of billions of KRW."

They continued, "Such price manipulation disturbs the sound trading order of the stock market and causes losses to an unspecified large number of investors participating in stock trading. Despite the gravity of the offense, the defendant denies the crime, making severe punishment inevitable."

Former Chairman Kwon was arrested and indicted on charges of violating the Capital Markets Act for raising Deutsche Motors' stock price through abnormal transactions using 157 accounts under 91 names, including 'stock price manipulation players,' 'boutique' investment advisory firms, and current and former securities company employees, from December 2009 to December 2012. In addition to Kwon, several others including four securities company employees, businessmen, investors, and stock price manipulation players were also indicted.

It was investigated that after Deutsche Motors was listed via a backdoor listing at the end of 2008, the stock price continuously declined, and when investors demanded a stock price boost, Kwon planned the manipulation by commissioning a 'stock price manipulation player' named Lee.

Subsequently, Lee requested stock supply and demand from securities company executive Kim, who, along with fellow securities employees and operators of 'boutique' investment advisory firms, prearranged prices and volumes to conduct wash trades, raising the stock price from the high 2,000 KRW range to 8,000 KRW.

This case also raised suspicions that Kim Geon-hee, spouse of President Yoon Suk-yeol, played the so-called 'jeonju' role, providing funds for the stock price manipulation.

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