[Invest&Law] 'Stock Manipulation, Embezzlement, Fraud'... Economic Offenders Flaunt Ultra-Luxury Legal Teams

Economic offenders accused of stock manipulation, embezzlement, and market manipulation are competing to present ultra-luxurious legal teams in court. Financial and securities crimes are becoming increasingly sophisticated and bold, with the scale of offenses reaching billions of won, leading the defense of related cases to gradually establish itself as a 'specialized field' within the legal community.

(From left) Lee Won-gon, Chief Attorney at Law Firm Pyeongsan; Gil Tae-gi, Chief Attorney at Law Firm Gwangjang; Bae Ji-hoon, Chief Attorney at Law Firm Inwol; Choi Sung-joon, Chief Attorney at Law Firm Inwol. Photo by each law firm's website

원본보기 아이콘

According to the legal community on the 3rd, the defense of Ra Deok-yeon, the CEO of an investment consulting firm who is on trial at the Seoul Southern District Court for the so-called 'Soci?t? G?n?rale (SG) securities-induced stock price crash incident,' is being handled by Lee Won-gon, the lead attorney of the law firm Pyeongsan (Judicial Research and Training Institute class 24). Attorney Lee is a former prosecutor who served as head of the Special 1 Division and the Financial and Tax Investigation 2 Division at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, as well as deputy chief prosecutor at the Daegu Western District Prosecutors' Office. He has also worked on the illegal presidential election fund investigation team, the Samsung slush fund special prosecution team, and in 2010, led the special investigation team for the Hanwha and Taekwang Group slush fund cases. He is regarded in the legal community as a lawyer with specialized expertise in financial and corporate cases.

Park Cheon-hyeok (class 32), also from the same law firm, is listed as part of Ra’s defense team. Attorney Park is also a former prosecutor and is classified as a financial specialist lawyer, having been seconded to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the Financial Services Commission. The prosecution has determined that Ra and his associates gained an unprecedented total of 730.5 billion won in illegal profits through stock manipulation and arrested Ra on May 26 last year.

The defense team for the Lee Hee-jin and Hee-moon brothers, known as the so-called 'Cheongdam-dong stock tycoons' who flaunted their wealth on broadcasts and were indicted last September on charges of cryptocurrency fraud amounting to 90 billion won, is even more spectacular. The joint defense team for the two brothers consists of a total of 34 members from three law firms?Kwangjang, Sejong, and KHL?as well as individual lawyers. Among them, Kwangjang’s lead attorney Gil Tae-gi (class 15) previously served as the chief prosecutor of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office, which indicted the Lee brothers, and later held positions as Deputy Minister of Justice, Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, and Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office. Attorney Gil was also rumored as a candidate for Minister of Justice following the resignation of Han Dong-hoon, the emergency committee chairman of the People Power Party, at the end of last year. He attends almost every hearing without fail and personally manages the case.

원본보기 아이콘

The defense of Lee Mo, the mastermind behind the 'Youngpoong Paper incident,' which involved the largest-ever illegal profits of about 660 billion won from stock manipulation of a single stock, is handled by Bae Ji-hoon (class 40) and Choi Seong-jun (class 40), lead attorneys of the law firm Inwol. Attorney Bae is a former prosecutor who worked at the Securities Crime Joint Investigation Team of the Southern District Prosecutors' Office, and Attorney Choi served in the Financial Investigation 2 Division of the same office. Inwol has established and operates a 'Financial and Securities Investigation Response Center' centered around these two lead attorneys.

Cases involving stock manipulation and other crimes in the capital market are becoming increasingly sophisticated, sometimes involving nationwide organizations. There are currently 56 defendants indicted in the SG incident alone, and 16 in the Youngpoong Paper incident. As a result, in related trials, it can take several minutes just to call the attendance of each defendant and their lawyers before the hearing begins. Scheduling hearings is also quite difficult due to the individual schedules of all parties. One trial division at the Seoul Southern District Court, frustrated by repeated delays in hearing dates caused by the conflicting schedules of more than a dozen lawyers despite the cases being detention cases, expressed discomfort by saying, "Judges are not calendar watchers."

© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.