'Yeouido Grim Reaper' Seoul Southern District Prosecutors Office Adds 4-5 Prosecutors

The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office, known as the "Yeouido Grim Reaper," significantly reinforced its investigative personnel through the appointment of junior prosecutors on the 5th. The "Financial Crime-Focused Prosecutors' Office," which primarily handles financial, securities, and virtual asset crimes, is expected to tighten its grip and launch intensive investigations.

[Photo by Beopryul Newspaper]

According to a comprehensive report by the Legal Times, the Southern District Prosecutors' Office increased its number of prosecutors by 4 to 5 through the junior prosecutor appointments on the 5th. There were 21 prosecutors transferred in and 11 transferred out as a result of this personnel change. This figure includes prosecutors returning from secondment to other offices.

Considering the recent manpower shortages in the prosecution organization, it is analyzed that investigative power is being concentrated at the Southern District Prosecutors' Office.

In particular, the personnel of the investigative teams under the Second Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Southern District Prosecutors' Office will be reinforced through this appointment.

The departments under the Second Deputy Chief include the Public Investigation and Anti-Corruption Division, the Joint Financial and Securities Crime Investigation Division, Financial Investigation Division 1, Financial Investigation Division 2, and the Joint Virtual Asset Crime Investigation Unit. These departments handle investigations related to anti-corruption, financial, and virtual asset crimes.

The prosecution is focusing most intensively on the investigation of the "Kakao Group," where four cases are interlinked.

Financial Investigation Division 2 is investigating the "Kakao SM stock price manipulation allegations," Financial Investigation Division 1 (led by Chief Prosecutor Kwon Chan-hyuk) is probing the "alleged overpriced acquisition of a drama production company" and the "Kakao Call preferential treatment allegations," and the Joint Virtual Asset Crime Investigation Unit (headed by Chief Prosecutor Lee Jeong-ryeol) is simultaneously investigating the "embezzlement allegations by a Kakao executive" among other cases.

Previously, due to this personnel change, two junior prosecutors from the existing four prosecutors in the Financial Investigation Divisions 1 and 2 were transferred out.

Therefore, the investigative teams of Financial Investigation Divisions 1 and 2 are also expected to be reorganized along with personnel reinforcement.

Additionally, the Joint Virtual Asset Crime Investigation Unit is investigating the "Haroo Invest" case, a virtual asset deposit company accused of a 1 trillion won coin fraud. The Joint Financial and Securities Crime Investigation Division (led by Chief Prosecutor Ha Dong-woo) is conducting trials after indicting Shin Hyun-sung, former Chief Executive Officer of Chai Corporation, who was identified as an accomplice in the "Terra-Luna incident." Among them, Han Chang-jun, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Terraform Labs and a close associate of Terraform Labs CEO Kwon Do-hyung, was repatriated to Korea on the 6th, and additional investigations into the "Terra-Luna" case are expected to proceed. Financial Investigation Division 2 (led by Chief Prosecutor Park Geon-young) is investigating an illegal short-selling case involving global investment banks such as BNP Paribas Hong Kong branch and HSBC Hong Kong branch, amounting to 56 billion won.

The three major fund corruption cases (Lime, Optimus, Discovery) are also being reinvestigated by the Southern District Prosecutors' Office.

Although the Southern District Prosecutors' Office had established the Joint Financial and Securities Crime Investigation Division and the Joint Virtual Asset Crime Investigation Unit, there have been criticisms that their achievements were not clear. Additionally, as the Financial Supervisory Service's Capital Market Special Judicial Police (Special Judicial Police) significantly expanded its scale, there were criticisms that cases transferred from the Special Judicial Police were bottlenecked at the Southern District Prosecutors' Office. Inside and outside the prosecution, there is an expectation that with additional prosecutors deployed, major cases will be processed more swiftly.

A senior prosecution official analyzed, "With many major cases such as the Kakao case and a backlog of complex financial cases, reinforcing the manpower of the Southern District Prosecutors' Office is expected to accelerate the pace of investigations."

Im Hyun-kyung, Legal Times Reporter

※This article is based on content supplied by Law Times.

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