April 19, 2024

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More than 350 individuals who own stocks of Samsung BioLogics have filed a damage suit against the Samsung Group unit over its alleged accounting fraud, judicial officials said on May 13.

In the class action suit filed with the Seoul Central District Court late last month, a group of 355 retail stock investors demanded that Samsung BioLogics, its accounting firms Samjeong KPMG and Deloitte Anjin, the watchdog Financial Supervisory Service and the state jointly compensate for their investment losses caused by its alleged accounting irregularities.

“Samsung BioLogics committed accounting fraud by inflating the valuation of its stake in affiliated Samsung Bioepis. The company also drew up and made public false business reports on the basis of the window dressing. We trusted the company’s disclosed information and suffered losses in the process of investing in its stocks. Thus the company is liable for compensation,” the lawsuit said.

It claimed that without accounting fraud, they would not have bought Samsung BioLogics shares or could have bought them at lower prices.

The plaintiffs demanded a compensation of 8.4 billion won ($7.1 million), estimating their combined losses at 12 billion won calculated in terms of the company‘s closing price of 334,500 won as of last Nov. 14.

Court officials said the damage suit will likely be handled after prosecutors wind up their ongoing investigations. 

By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)