The group, including singer Lee Seung-gi's father-in-law Lee Mo (58), was indicted for manipulating the stock prices of three KOSDAQ-listed companies to gain illegal profits.
The South Seoul District Prosecutors' Office Financial and Securities Crime Joint Investigation Team (Director General Ahn Chang-joo) announced on the 15th that it had arrested eight people, including Lee, on charges of violating the Capital Markets Act, and indicted a total of 13 individuals.
According to prosecutors, they falsely spread information that three KOSDAQ-listed companies were pursuing new businesses utilizing advanced technology, thereby artificially inflating stock prices and obtaining illegal gains amounting to 14 billion won.
It was investigated that they placed orders to manipulate the market for Joongang Advanced Materials, a secondary battery materials corporation, over approximately one year from November 2022, raising the stock price from 490 won to 5,850 won, more than tenfold.
Additionally, it was revealed that they inflated the stock price of QUANTAPIA by announcing a false investment confirmation stating that 'an investment of about 100 billion won has been secured,' siphoning off an additional 6 billion won.
During this process, when QUANTAPIA's trading was suspended in February of last year, Lee received a retainer fee of 30 million won from former prosecutor investigator A (59), promising to resolve the issue, and was also charged with a violation of the Attorney-at-Law Act after promising a success fee of 1 billion won.
A was identified as having led the crime to secure overseas escape funds for Lee In-gwang, the chairman of S-More, who was the main culprit in the Lime Asset Management redemption suspension case (Lime Incident).
The two carried out a third crime to recover losses caused by the trading suspension. They spread rumors that XCURE, a SIM card manufacturer, was pushing into the artificial intelligence (AI) robot business and placed market manipulation orders to inflate the stock price.
Lee was found to have made a capital gain of 100 million won through covert purchases using undisclosed information obtained in advance during the company acquisition process.
Prosecutors plan to focus on recovering criminal proceeds by confiscating assets worth about 3 billion won, including real estate and luxury vehicles held by the group.