April 24, 2024

• 

[THE INVESTOR] Three officials at Samsung Securities were arrested on June 21 for purposely selling accidently issued bogus shares.

The Seoul Southern District Court issued their arrest warrants, which prosecutors requested on June 19, citing the risk of them destroying evidence and fleeing. It rejected the warrant request for another suspect.

The probe centers on an April 6 stock blunder that jolted the local financial market. An official at the Samsung brokerage house mistakenly typed in 1,000 shares instead of 1,000 won per share for 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, worth over 110 trillion won (US$100 billion). But some of the workers who received the stocks quickly sold them on the market. 

The Financial Supervisory Service has filed for a complaint against 21 Samsung Securities officials over possible wrongdoing.

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