'Hana Bank Employee, Trustee of "Optimus Fund," Also Acquitted in Second Trial'

First Trial and Appellate Court Both Acquit Defendant

An employee of Hana Bank who was indicted for participating in the cover-up of redemption payments for Optimus Asset Management (Optimus) funds, which caused a large-scale fund redemption suspension incident, was acquitted again in the second trial.

Representatives of the Optimus Fund Victims' Association are urging the cancellation of Optimus contracts (full principal refund) in front of the Financial Supervisory Service in Yeouido, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul on the 5th. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

The Criminal Division 12-3 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judges Kim Hyung-bae, Kim Gil-ryang, Jin Hyun-min) on the 30th acquitted employee A and Kim Jae-hyun, CEO of Optimus Asset Management, who were charged with violations of the Capital Markets Act and breach of trust in office, just as in the first trial.

The court stated regarding the charge of violating the Capital Markets Act’s obligation for trustees to manage each property separately, "It is difficult to view Hana Bank as having violated the duty of segregation and management as a trustee simply because it operated a collective investment bank account management system rather than individual funds."

Regarding the allegation that A and Hana Bank engaged in transactions between funds to cover up Optimus redemption payments, the court said, "Since there is no substance to the transactions and only the appearance exists, under the principle of legality prohibiting unfavorable expansive interpretation against the defendant, it cannot be concluded that these were transactions between funds, and it is difficult to consider the prosecutor’s evidence as proving this beyond a reasonable doubt."

On the charge of breach of trust in office, the court judged, "Since the Capital Markets Act distinguishes the obligations of involved parties according to the type of trust and the specific trust stage roles, it is difficult to consider Hana Bank as holding the status of a co-trustee with Optimus Asset Management, the collective investment business operator, solely based on the reliability to protect investors."

Earlier, the prosecution reported that employee A, who worked in the custody sales department of Hana Bank, participated in covering up 9.2 billion KRW of Optimus fund redemption payments three times between August and December 2018 by using funds from other entrusted funds, and indicted A and others in May 2021.

The first trial court stated, "The fact that Hana Bank operated an integrated bank account management system does not itself constitute a violation of the segregation and management duties under the Capital Markets Act." It also judged, "Even if the bank internally adjusted the bank account amounts to close the accounts, it did not affect the substantive rights and obligations, so it is difficult to consider this as a 'transaction' between funds."

Meanwhile, CEO Kim is currently serving a sentence after being sentenced to 40 years in prison, a fine of 500 million KRW, and a confiscation of 75.175 billion KRW in July 2022 for causing the Optimus fund redemption suspension incident, separate from this trial.

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