South Korean prosecutors on Friday indicted a fellow senior prosecutor for allegedly pocketing millions of dollars from shady stock transaction deals with an online game maker.
Jin Kyung-joon, who holds a rank of vice minister, faces charges including bribery and violating the law on financial transactions, prosecutor Lee Keum-ro announced in a televised news conference. Jin became the most senior prosecutor to be arrested last week.
He allegedly took money from the founder of Nexon and bought unlisted company shares before selling them back to the company at a much higher price. Prosecutors accused Lee of using the profits to purchase shares of Nexon Japan and sold them again for 12.6 billion won ($11 million) last year.
Lee said that prosecutors also indicted Nexon founder Kim Jungju, who is one of South Korea’s richest men with an estimated wealth of 4 trillion won ($3.5 billion). Nexon, known for hit games like “MapleStory” and “Dungeon & Fighter,” has about 300 million users in about 150 countries, according to Nexon officials.
Corruption scandals involving high-profile figures routinely take place in South Korea, one of Asia’s leading economies that became a liberal democracy in the late 1980s after decades of dictatorships.
Last year, then-Prime Minster Lee Wan Koo pledged to root out corruption, only to resign a month later after he was implicated in a widening bribery scandal involving a late businessman.
By: Associated Press (The Washington Post).
Photo: WHIO.
Review: Emerging Market Formulations & Research Unit, FLAGSHIP RECORDS.
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