As Ha-won Chang, CEO of Discovery Fund Asset Management, who caused 250 billion won in damage due to the suspension of redemption, was arrested yesterday (8th), attention is being paid to whether the investigation will expand to the political and business circles.
When the police applied for a warrant, they said they would look into whether upper-level intervention was involved, and the bank that sold the fund was also searched and confiscated, and the investigation is expected to expand as the case is subpoenaed.
The Seoul Southern District Court issued a warrant yesterday, saying, "There is a risk of escape and destruction of evidence" after more than 10 hours of work.
Although it is not a formal criminal trial, it is based on the judgment that most of the accusations against CEO Jang have been made during the warrant review stage.
Discovery Fund was sold through commercial banks and securities companies, including IBK, from 2017 to 2019.
The redemption was suspended in March last year due to problems such as incomplete sales and poor management by the manager, and individual and corporate investors suffered enormous losses.
After going through an internal investigation for several months, the police banned Jang from leaving the country in July of last year and started an investigation in earnest by conducting a search and seizure on banks.
During the investigation, it was revealed that Jang's brother, Ha-seong Jang, Ambassador to China, also invested about 6 billion won in the Discovery Fund.
Former Blue House policy chief Kim Sang-jo and former Bareunmirae Party lawmaker Chae Yi-bae are also known to have invested in this fund.
When the police applied for a prior arrest warrant for CEO Jang last month, the police said, "I applied for a warrant to look into various things such as interference from superiors."
Kim Do-jin, the former president of IBK, who sold the discovery fund at the time of his tenure, was also summoned and investigated.
We are looking into whether IBK conducted 'incomplete sales' that did not fully notify the risks of investment products.
Separately, IBK was in a situation of being accused by victims of the so-called 'split operation'.
It is that the manager actually evaded financial regulations by dividing the public offering fund with 50 or more investors into private equity funds with 49 or less, and IBK sold it knowingly.
Another variable in the investigation is the fact that the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) is expected to strengthen its supervision of financial crimes as the head of the Financial Supervisory Service, Lee Hyun-bok, who was a former prosecutor, takes office.