Probe into Shady Stock Transactions

SillaJen CEO Moon Eun-sang
SillaJen CEO Moon Eun-sang

The prosecution has begun an investigation into Sillajen, a Kosdaq-listed company, in connection with the massive trading of common stocks prior to the recent announcement regading the inefficacy of the company’s anti-cancer drug “Pexa Vac.”

According to the prosecution, the Joint Securities Crime Investigation Division of the Southern Seoul Prosecutors Office sent a prosecutor and inspectors to the Seoul branch of Sillajen in Yeouido of Seoul, on Aug. 28, over the allegations that the company sold off its shares recently using undisclosed information, which constitutes a violation of the laws on the capital market and the financial investment business.

Earlier, an allegation was made that Sillajen was aware of the results of the tests on Pexa Vac, given that a company executive in charge of new business development sold off a total of 167,777 Sillajen common shares (about 8.9 billion won) on four occasions before the test results were announced.

“It is absurd to say that the executive sold off the shares as he was aware of the test results beforehand,” said Song Myung-seok, vice president of Sillajen. “Yet it is immoral for the executive to sell off his shares simply because the company’s stock price went up during a clinical trial. So we are persuading him to quit the company. ”

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