It

is pointed out that it was possible to make a private investment in a private equity fund like <Anchor> , and the government drastically eased regulations by promoting private equity funds, and sales companies and trustees neglected the monitoring role.

Reporter Hyung-Woo Jeon.

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In 2015, the Financial Services Commission drastically relaxed private equity regulations.

We reduced the amount of capital to one-third and changed it to a registration system, and we were able to operate a private equity fund with three employees with over 3 years of financial experience.

The company operated by former CEO Lee Hyeok-jin as the predecessor of Optimus registered as a private equity manager the day after the deregulation.

Optimus was also able to attract and operate investments of KRW 1.9 billion with capital of 1.9 billion won and 6 employees without special monitoring.

Securities firms that sell Optimus funds to their customers claim they are victims of fraud, but it is difficult to avoid liability.

In the case of public-trade receivables that Optimus said they would invest in, they did not doubt whether they were investing in real public-trade receivables even though the investment destination was limited.

In accordance with the manager's instructions, the trust company that purchased the asset and the depository settlement company that calculated the value of the fund were also helpless.

The Optimus side had asked Hana Bank, the trustee, to buy unlisted bonds, and submitted documents to the Depository, which they said had invested in public agency bonds.

This is because the trustee and the office management company have no obligation to verify the fund's assets and no monitoring obligations.

[Kim Deuk-eui/CEO of Financial Justice: (in 2015) I changed the capital market law and immunized everyone. No disclosure obligations, no exemption from reporting to each other. I think

Optimus aimed exactly at the loophole.] There are about 1,100 investors with investments tied to the Optimus Fund.

(Video coverage; Han Il-sang, video editing: Jong-tae Kim)