Prosecution summons former KT President Yoon Kyung-rim for KT 'Boeun Investment Suspicion' investigation

The prosecution investigating allegations that KT Group purchased shares of Hyundai Motor affiliates at inflated prices has summoned former KT President Yoon Kyung-rim.

Seoul Seocho-gu Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office. / Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

The Fair Trade Investigation Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Yong Seong-jin) is questioning former President Yoon on the 5th as a suspect under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, including breach of trust.

The prosecution is reportedly probing whether former President Yoon was involved in KT Cloud's acquisition of Spark & Associates (Spark, now Open Cloud Lab) at a price higher than the normal market value.

KT Cloud, a subsidiary of KT, is under suspicion of having purchased shares of Spark, founded by former Spark CEO Park Seong-bin in 2022, at an inflated price.

At that time, KT Cloud acquired 100% of Spark's shares for 20.68 billion KRW, incorporated it as a subsidiary, and subsequently renamed the company Open Cloud Lab.

This has raised suspicions that KT's purchase of Spark was a reciprocal investment in response to Hyundai Motor acquiring shares in Airplug, a company established by the twin brother of former KT CEO Koo Hyun-mo, in two rounds in 2019 and 2021.

Earlier, in August last year, the prosecution conducted raids on former President Yoon's residence, KT headquarters, KT Cloud, Open Cloud Lab, and residences of related parties. In November last year, they also seized related materials from four locations, including the residences of Seo Jeong-sik, then CEO of Hyundai AutoEver, and Spark affiliates.

In December last year, they raided three locations including Hyundai AutoEver headquarters, the cloud operations center, and the Samsung-dong building, and summoned former CEO Seo for questioning. On the 9th of last month, KT Cloud CEO Yoon Dong-sik was summoned and investigated.

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