Prosecutors Seek Arrest Warrant for Chorokbaem Group Chairman Over Alleged Kang Jong-hyun Stock Manipulation Involvement

The prosecution has requested an arrest warrant for Won Young-sik (62), chairman of Chorokbaem Group, who is suspected of being involved in stock price manipulation alongside Kang Jong-hyun (41), known as the actual owner of the cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb.

Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office

According to the prosecution on the 28th, the Financial Investigation Division 2 of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office (led by Chief Prosecutor Chae Hee-man) filed a pre-arrest warrant request against Chairman Won the previous day on charges including violation of the Capital Markets Act and violation of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes (breach of trust).

Chorokbaem Group, the largest shareholder of entertainment company Chorokbaem Media, reportedly earned profits by investing more than 100 billion KRW in convertible bonds (CB) issued by Bident, the largest shareholder of Bithumb, and Bucket Studio, an affiliate of Bithumb. Kang is known as the actual owner of Bithumb.

The prosecution is investigating the facts on the possibility that Chairman Won was involved in Kang's stock price manipulation by making large investments in Bithumb affiliates. Last month, Chorokbaem Media, located in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, was raided.

Kang is accused of spreading favorable information to inflate stock prices after issuing CBs at a Bithumb affiliate in 2021, thereby illegally gaining 35 billion KRW (fraudulent unfair trading under the Capital Markets Act), transferring call options at a low price that allowed repurchasing the CBs, causing a loss of 32 billion KRW (breach of trust), and embezzling 62.8 billion KRW from a Bithumb affiliate (embezzlement).

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