[Report file] "As long as the United States does not collapse, it is safe"... Tears of Discovery Fund Victims

256.2 billion won of money that was not returned

SBS reported that Ha-seong Jang, Ambassador to China and Sang-jo Kim, former chief of policy at the Blue House, revealed that they had invested in the Discovery Fund.

The fund products they subscribed to are attracting attention in that they are different from those of ordinary investors.

Because you need to check whether you have been given special treatment.

In particular, as the redemption of funds has been suspended, attention is focused on whether these influential figures will recover their investment.

Separately, what the media should pay constant attention to is the story of the remaining victims.

According to data from the Financial Supervisory Service (April 2021), the outstanding amount of repayment is KRW 256.2 billion.

As the redemption was stopped in April 2019, the money has been tied up for about three years.

The National Private Equity Fund Fraud Victims Squadron received data on the suspension of redemption of Discovery Fund through the National Assembly.

According to the data, there are 163 products that have been repurchased.

The investments of 1,162 individual investors and 196 corporate investors are tied up.

Fund victims: "We're not rich."

The National Private Equity Fund Fraud Victims Unit is working hard to recover the investment of investors who have suffered from discovery funds.

They hold a rally in front of the headquarters of sales companies such as IBK to ask for 100% of the investment.

It has been held 178 times over 3 years.

The Financial Justice Solidarity is also helping.

Last month (January), I went to a rally held in front of the headquarters of IBK.

I was able to meet the victim investors.

Investors have different stories, but most of them signed up for a bank employee who said that they can see a 3% return on investment for a period of 6 months to 1 year.

It was common to invest by 'recommendation' rather than the victim himself or herself.

Victims say they are not rich.

It's not like you've invested too much to make money and you've lost money.

Rather, they say that if the Discovery Fund had been a risky product, they would not have invested in it.

After retirement, Lee Gu Dong-seong said that all they had to do was invest with their savings, such as retirement funds, moving funds, children's marriage funds, housing funds, and investment in business facilities, with an interest rate of 3%.

In a word, they were deceived by bank and securities company employees.

A, a woman in her 60s, who left her daughter's migration funds, suffers from a sense of self-blame for her third year.

She has invested 300 million won in the Discovery Fund and is not getting her principal back.

Her money was received by her own daughter to fund her reconstructive relocation.

It was the money she had to spend on moving to another house in the future.

Mr. A invested in her banker's words that she could see a 3% return in 6 months.

Although she had money in her daughter's account, she decided to invest in her because her family relations allowed her to join as a proxy as she was her biological mother.

It's to help her daughter get over 3 million won in interest after 6 months.

She says she wouldn't have invested if Mr. A had told her that she could have suffered a loss of even 10% of the principal.

Mr. A became an ugly mother who lost her daughter's immigration funds like this.

Mr. B, the representative of a small and medium-sized business, is running a corporate company.

At that time, Mr. B prepared 700 million won as a reserve fund for the purchase of factory equipment and machinery six months later.

However, it is said that a bank employee who has been trading for over 30 years recommended investing in the Discovery Fund.

Mr. B initially rejected the investment proposal.

This is because, after 6 months, there is no need to lose money as it is an essential fund.

However, after persuasion from the bank, I signed up for a six-month product.

Mr. B said it was difficult to refuse because he had to get a loan from the bank in the future.

In the end, I still haven't been able to get my money back.

"As long as America doesn't collapse, it's safe."

General investors have read the fund subscription process.

There are some things in common.

These are the words of bank employees when they invited you to join.

Victims said that bank employees made sure that the representative of the fund's asset management company was the younger brother of Ambassador to China Jang Ha-seong.

He also reassured them by saying that it is a safe fund as long as the US does not go bankrupt.

However, there was no way to stop the buyback.

Risk Level 1 Customers

Each vendor categorizes their customers.

The ratings depend on the investment propensity of our clients.

The more you enjoy aggressive investing, the higher your score and the higher your rating.

A bank has set up a Discovery Fund so that only customers with a score of 82 or higher can sign up for the Discovery Fund.

Were the fund victims all customers of the aggressive investment type?

Some bank employees have also been found to have manipulated investment clients' risk scores.

Is it wrong for you to sign it?

Because of this, there is a saying that the victims feel most resentful of.

This is when the bank tells you that you are responsible for signing it yourself.

However, the victims say that it is not right to hold them accountable, as there were not enough product descriptions and document falsification was also found to be true.

Victims with different fates depending on the seller

There are 12 vendors that have sold Discovery Funds.

Among them, IBK has the largest number of products sold.

As of April of last year, 76.1 billion won out of 256.2 billion won of outstanding repayments were from IBK investors.

As some of the investment principal is recovered, the outstanding amount may also decrease.

The circumstances of the victims vary from vendor to vendor.

In the case of Korea Investment & Securities Co., Ltd., 100% compensation was decided to the injured investors.

Accordingly, the principal was guaranteed for investors who signed up for the fund through Korea Investment & Securities.

It means that the joys and losses were mixed depending on the location of the bank and securities company I trusted.

100% vs 40-80%

Victims say they want 100% of their investment back as long as they are not at fault.

They argue that it is wrong to hold the victims accountable and compensate only part of the principal.

However, some banks and securities companies that sold products have disagreements over the compensation ratio.

For this reason, the Financial Dispute Mediation Committee of the Financial Supervisory Service has arbitrated.

The Financial Dispute Mediation Committee has decided on the compensation ratio for IBK investors.

The percentage varies from victim to victim.

In the two cases disclosed through a press release in May of last year, the compensation ratios were 64% and 60%, respectively.

Victims who missed this dispute mediation application were advised to voluntarily adjust the compensation ratio within 40-80% (corporate, 30-80%).

As for the calculation standard, 30% of the ratio was prioritized by holding the salesperson's employees responsible for violating the conformity principle and duty of explanation.

Here, 15% and 20% are added depending on the type of fund by asking for management responsibility at the head office level.

Then, depending on the circumstances at the time of registration by each investor, it is added or subtracted.

It was judged that there was no 'unreasonable solicitation' that could add 10%p to the ratio, so it was not reflected.

Press release Representative case refusal to mediate

The problem is that the party introduced as the representative case in the press release rejected the 64% compensation ratio that came out of the dispute settlement plan.

The Financial Dispute Mediation Committee even suggested compensation standards for this dispute mediation, but the meaning of the dispute was lost because the dispute mediation case did not agree.

A contradiction has arisen in applying the compensation ratio calculation standard rejected by the representative case to the rest of the victims.

FSC decides to sanction Discovery Fund

The Financial Services Commission has decided to impose sanctions on Discovery Asset Management, including a three-month suspension of institutional operations, a fine of 50 million won, and a fine of 15 million won.

CEO Ha-won Jang was suspended for three months.

Asset managers are also claiming damages.

It is intended to be an 'accident' caused by the representative responsibility of DLI (US local asset management company).

He also said that he would help domestic investors recover from damage, but it remains to be seen how specifically they will help.

for the victims

The Victim Countermeasures Committee has been conducting rallies at branches across the country since March 2020.

Their request is to return the principal invested by them.

Compensation issues are not the domain of an investigation.

This is an area that requires social consensus.

I hope the seller will be more active in the compensation issue.

I hope that the victims of the Discovery Fund will no longer go to protests calling for compensation in the scorching cold.