CEO Pado, Who Must Deliver the Keynote Speech, Is Grounded by a 'Travel Ban'...

CEO Lee Ji-hyo Absent from US FMS Keynote Speech
Requested Temporary Lift of Travel Ban from FSC
Denied, US Trip Cancelled
Investigation into 'Inflated IPO Suspicion'

The CEO of Pado, a semiconductor design company under investigation for 'inflated listing allegations,' is unlikely to attend the world-renowned semiconductor exhibition held in the United States from the 6th to the 8th (local time) due to an unresolved travel ban.

Pado Headquarters. Photo by Pado

According to the industry on the 5th, Ji-hyo Lee, CEO of Pado, was scheduled to deliver a keynote speech at the '2024 FMS (Future of Memory and Storage)' held at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Silicon Valley, California, and meet with representatives of global companies to discuss cooperation. However, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has not lifted the travel ban, preventing her from boarding the flight to the U.S. that day.

Earlier, CEO Lee submitted a petition to the FSS last month requesting that the travel ban be lifted only for the three days during which the FMS takes place, but the FSS reportedly rejected the request citing concerns over fairness in the investigation, risk of flight, and evidence tampering. Today was effectively the deadline, but with the travel ban still in place, it has become practically impossible for her to attend the keynote speech. The FMS keynote speech is scheduled for the 6th local time in the U.S., and if she cannot depart for the U.S. on that day, physical attendance is impossible. Given this situation, Pado has begun considering having an executive working at its U.S. subsidiary deliver the keynote speech on her behalf.

FMS is the world's largest semiconductor exhibition, featuring leading companies in the semiconductor market such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Kioxia. CEO Lee was set to participate in a joint keynote speech on the opening day of the exhibition, the 6th, alongside Ross Stanford, Meta Storage Engineer, and Eric Spanut, Vice President of Marketing at Western Digital. Additionally, Pado and CEO Lee planned to showcase enterprise solid-state drive (SSD) controllers and Compute Express Link (CXL) solutions optimized for AI data centers at the exhibition and seek cooperation with overseas companies. However, with the travel ban still in place, these ambitious plans prepared by Pado have fallen through.

Before listing on the KOSDAQ in August last year, Pado was suspected of 'inflated listing' after reporting an estimated annual revenue at a high amount during the preparation process and then announcing results that fell short after listing under the 'technology special case.' Pado reported an estimated annual revenue of 120.2 billion KRW during the listing preparation, but after listing, it announced sales of 59 million KRW for the second quarter (April to June) and 320 million KRW for the third quarter (July to September). The gap was so large that investors raised concerns that Pado might have deliberately concealed the nearly zero sales during the second quarter when the IPO process was underway. The FSS Capital Market Special Judicial Police (Special Judicial Police) launched a full-scale investigation in early April by raiding Pado and the securities firms that underwrote the listing in connection with these allegations. On April 30 and the 4th of last month, they also raided the headquarters of SK Hynix, Pado's largest client, in Icheon to secure materials related to the case. After completing the investigation, the FSS plans to transfer the case to the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office.

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