FSS Looking into Allegations
A lawmaker of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea has raised suspicions that executives of Samsung affiliates had received 15.8 billion won in illegal credit offering from Samsung Securities in 2017.
Rep. Park Yong-jin raised the suspicion in a parliamentary audit of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) on Oct. 21.
In response, the FSS said that it is looking into the issue.
"Fourteen executives of Samsung affiliates traded stocks through illegal credit offerings of 15.8 billion won," Rep. Park said. "Three executives bought 7.4 billion won worth of Samsung Biologics stocks. They were all executives of Samsung Bioepis, a subsidiary of Samsung Biologics." The lawmaker suspected that they traded illegally using internal information or acted collectively under someone's order.
FSS Governor Jeong Eun-bo said the lawmaker got the amount of money right, but did not go further, simply saying, "We are investigating details of the matter."
"It is illegal to provide credit in excess of 100 million won to an executive of an affiliate company," Rep. Park stressed, adding, "It is clear that Samsung Securities violated the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act."