Police Request Arrest Warrant for Hancom Chairman Kim Sang-cheol's Son Over 'Slush Fund Allegations'

The police investigating allegations of slush fund creation by Kim Sang-cheol, chairman of Hancom, have applied for an arrest warrant for Kim's son.

The Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Unit of the Gyeonggi Southern Provincial Police Agency announced on the 28th that they recently applied for an arrest warrant for Kim's son, Kim, on charges including breach of trust in the course of business. The police also applied for an arrest warrant on the same charges for Jung, the CEO of the Arowana Token issuing company, in which a Hancom affiliate invested.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The police are investigating on the suspicion that Chairman Kim created slush funds using Arowana Token. After conducting two raids in July and October last year on the Hancom Tower chairman's office and affiliate company offices, they have been analyzing related materials.

Arowana Token is a cryptocurrency in which Hancom With, a blockchain specialist company affiliated with Hancom, invested shares. On April 20, 2021, it was first listed, and within 30 minutes, its initial trading price of 50 won surged 1,075 times (107,500%) to 53,800 won, raising suspicions of price manipulation.

There are also allegations that slush funds amounting to around 10 billion won formed during this process flowed to the son, who is a director of a Hancom Group affiliate. A police official said, "It is true that we applied for an arrest warrant, but we cannot confirm anything else as the investigation is ongoing."

Meanwhile, Chairman Kim is also currently under investigation on charges of breach of trust and embezzlement.

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