Prosecutors Indict Additional 41 Individuals Including Lawyers and Accountants Involved in the 'SG Incident'

The prosecution has indicted 41 individuals, including advisory lawyers and accountants for the stock manipulation organization, executive-level officers, and trading team leaders and members, in connection with the 'Soci?t? G?n?rale (SG) Securities Stock Price Crash Incident' that occurred in April last year. This brings the total number of defendants charged in the SG case, considered the largest stock manipulation incident in history, to 56.

On the 7th, the Financial and Securities Crime Joint Investigation Division of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Ha Dong-woo) announced that it had additionally indicted 41 people involved in unregistered investment discretionary business and stock manipulation crimes over about three years, playing advisory roles in the organization related to the SG incident, on charges including violations of the Capital Markets Act.

Previously, 15 members of the group, including the mastermind of the stock manipulation, Ra Deok-yeon, had already been indicted and are currently undergoing first trial proceedings. To date, a total of 56 people have been prosecuted in connection with this case, of whom 14 were indicted in custody and the remaining 42 were indicted without detention.

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The prosecution identified Ra Deok-yeon and his group as the 'largest corporate-type nationwide stock manipulation organization in history.' Investigation results revealed that around 50 members, centered on Ra, formed an organized structure including sales management, trading, settlement, and corporate management teams, recruiting over 900 large-scale investors over three years. They are accused of manipulating stock prices of eight listed companies, obtaining a total illicit gain of 730.5 billion KRW. This is the largest amount of illicit gain ever recorded in related crimes.

The prosecution's investigation found that to evade detection by financial authorities, they mobilized numerous members to conduct so-called 'mobile trading,' where stocks were traded near investors' addresses using mobile phones registered under investors' names, gradually raising stock prices over a long period using this new method.

Notably, corruption involving capital market experts such as current team leaders at commercial banks and department heads at securities firms was also uncovered through the prosecution's investigation. Besides the stock manipulation organization members, lawyers and accountants who provided legal and accounting advice, a commercial bank corporate finance team leader who attracted bank customers as investors and received bribes in return, and a current securities firm department head who arranged the lending of securities accounts under customers' names to the stock manipulation organization and received bribes were all identified and indicted.

The prosecution has taken provisional seizure measures on approximately 22 billion KRW in assets belonging to Ra and 10 key organization members and requested the dissolution of 10 corporations used for stock manipulation and money laundering, resulting in their dissolution.

A representative of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office stated, "As a specialized prosecution office focusing on financial crimes, we will exert our full investigative capabilities to strictly punish financial and securities crimes," adding, "We will do our utmost to ensure the message is clearly conveyed that 'those who disrupt market order through financial and securities crimes must pay the price, and no criminal proceeds will be allowed to be kept even a single won.'"

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