Stock Information Leaked
Suspended sentences were given to employees of Hanmi Pharmaceutical for allegedly releasing Hanmi Pharmaceutical’s stock information in advance and selling off its stocks in advance.
On April 6, the Southern District Court of Seoul gave a suspended ten-month sentence with a two-year stay of execution and a fine of 45 million won to Hanmi Pharmaceutical employee A who was indicted on the charge of violating the Capital Market Law and a suspended eight-month sentence with a two-year stay of execution and a fine of ten million won to another employee B on the same charge.
On September 30 of last year, A was charged with informing four friends of his of the information that Hanmi Pharmaceutical’s 850 billion won technology transfer contract with Boehringer Ingelheim was cancelled before the bad news was publicly disclosed. A sold off stocks of Hanmi Pharmaceutical in advance, avoiding losses of 47.32 million won and the four friends did not lose 25.22 million won, either.
Moreover, A was also charged with illegally taking profits by buying Hanmi Pharmaceutical and Hanmi Science stocks in advance after hearing good news that that Hanmi will export a new drug to the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi before its public disclosure in October and November 2015. Hanmi Science is the holding company of Hanmi Pharmaceutical.
B was also indicted on the charge of telling seven acquaintances of his after hearing bad news that Hanmi Pharmaceutical’s technology export contract with Boehringer Ingelheim was canceled in advance on September 29 last year.
On top of that, the prosecution suspects B of making undue profits by selling off Hanmi Science stocks after acquiring positive information that Hanmi Pharmaceutical will export a new drug to France in advance and helping one of his acquaintances to take ill-gotten gains by telling the acquaintance the lowdown.
The prosecution conducted an investigation into the case for about two months and found that 45 employees including executives of Hanmi Pharmaceutical took unjust enrichment and unfairly avoid losses and indicted 17 of them last December
On the other hand, controversy is brewing over Hanmi Pharmaceutical’s delayed and botched action as the drug maker responded too late to negative side effects which occurred to a patient with late-stage lung cancer who took targeted cancer drug Olita tested by Hanmi Pharmaceutical.