Prosecutors File Additional Charges Against Former VIK CEO Lee Cheol for 41.1 Billion KRW Embezzlement Allegations

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Seoyul] Former Value Invest Korea (VIK) CEO Lee Cheol, who is currently in custody, has been additionally indicted on charges of breach of trust.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 1st, the Criminal Division 2 of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kwon Bang-moon) announced that Lee was indicted without detention on the 27th of last month on charges of breach of trust under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes.

Lee is accused of causing damage to the victim company by transferring a total of 41.15 billion KRW from company funds, which were collected by deceiving tens of thousands of investors from May 2014 to July 2015, to the CEO of Company A under the name of loans, instead of to Company A itself.

Previously, Lee was reported for embezzlement on charges of transferring 15.95 billion KRW to the CEO of an investee company from February to September 2015 and then reclaiming the funds. The police decided not to prosecute this case, citing no evidence of money being returned to the defendant based on account flows.

After the complainant filed an objection and the case was transferred to the prosecution, the prosecution reanalyzed the period and scale of the crime through supplementary investigations including interviews with the victims’ association representative and account tracing. As a result, it was found that despite the victim company being in a state of capital erosion, approximately 41.1 billion KRW was loaned without collateral to the CEO of Company A, who was burdened with high debt. It was also confirmed that no measures were taken to ensure the loan would be attributed to Company A.

Meanwhile, Lee was sentenced to 12 years in prison in June 2019 and 2 years and 6 months in February 2020 for violations of the Capital Markets and Financial Investment Business Act, and is currently serving his sentence at Seoul Southern Detention Center.

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