April 26, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Prosecutors said on May 24 they launched an investigation into officials of Samsung Securities over the massive dividend error in April that jolted the local financial market.

The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office said a probe has begun based on the complaint filed by the Financial Supervisory Service early this month regarding the accidental issuance of stocks worth nearly 113 trillion won (US$104 billion) on April 6.

The blunder happened when an official at the brokerage house by mistake typed in 1,000 shares instead of 1,000 won per share in dividends that were to be paid to employees under a company compensation plan.

As a result it issued 2.8 billion shares that only existed on paper. But some of the workers who received the stocks quickly sold them in the market.

Shares of Samsung Securities nose-dived about 12 percent on the day it made the error.

Prosecutors said they plan to bring the officials in for questioning soon.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)