Financial regulators launched their inquiry into allegations that some affiliates of the embattled Tong Yang Group manipulated stocks before they filed for court receivership.Out of the five Tong Yang units that applied for the court’s control last week, three firms ― Tong Yang Inc., Tong Yang Networks and Tong Yang Cement & Energy ― are listed on the Korea Exchange.The main exchange issued a trading ban on equities of the three firms after they filed for the court’s control.Another listed unit,

The sales disparity among 23 foreign carmakers in Korea has deepened while the overall import car industry has continued to expand its presence over the past few years.Though import car sales in the local market increased by 21.3 percent in the past nine months on-year, Toyota Motor Corp. reported a 24.8 percent drop over the corresponding period.Toyota Motor CEO Akio Toyoda had vowed to become the champion of sales among foreign automakers in Korea by 2014. The company, however, has yet to be s

The financial regulator said Monday that it uncovered 2,339 cases of illegal foreign currency trading through its crackdown between June and September, vowing stern disciplinary measures against tax evaders.“We’ve completed the probe into 1,160 cases out of 2,339 cases and are still conducting a full-fledged probe into the remaining 1,179 cases,” said the Financial Supervisory Service in a statement.It has already referred 49 individuals suspected of dodging taxes via their investments in overse

Tax revenue collected during the first eight months of this year shrank by nearly 6 trillion won from a year earlier, data showed Friday, affected by the prolonged low economic growth trend.According to the data provided by the National Tax Service, it had collected about 129.7 trillion won ($121 billion) in tax revenue during the January-August period. This is down 5.8 trillion won from what was collected a year earlier.The on-year revenue decline stood at 8.3 trillion won until July, but the l

South Koreans’ holdings of overseas securities advanced in 2012 from four years earlier, data showed Friday, due mainly to low interest rates and favorable foreign exchange market conditions.The value of foreign securities held by local investors reached $116.5 billion in 2012, compared to $93.8 billion tallied in 2008, when the U.S. financial crisis dented investors’ sentiment, the Bank of Korea data showed.The figure came to $130.8 billion at end-July this year, maintaining its stable growth.S

Tong Yang Securities CEO Jeong Jin-seok was found to have pushed forth a voluntary business suspension in a low-key manner, which is inviting mounting criticism in the financial market.Though his attempt failed in the face of skepticism from financial regulators and the company’s executives, the chief of the embattled Tong Yang Group’s brokerage unit had sought to halt operations before the conglomerates’ five units filed for court receivership earlier this week, according to industry sources on

Financial regulators have widened the scope of their inquiry into the debt-saddled Tong Yang Group, not ruling out the possibility that six financial units of the conglomerate were misused as an illegitimate funding source to nonfinancial affiliates.The group’s financial units are Tong Yang Securities, Tong Yang Investment, Tong Yang Asset Management, Tong Yang Financial Services, Tong Yang Life Insurance and TY Money Financial Services.The expanded probe of the Financial Supervisory Service com

The issue of ethics and codes of conduct in the financial industry has returned to the spotlight in the wake of the cash-strapped Tong Yang Group’s woes, two years after the secondary savings bank scandal yielded a huge number of victimized depositors.Over the past year, Tong Yang Securities allegedly actively attracted retail investors for corporate bonds and commercial paper that were issued by some of its nonfinancial Tong Yang affiliates.Market insiders and the political sector are raising t

The Fair Trade Commission said Tuesday that POSCO was found to have rigged its performance on “fair trade” deals with subcontractors.The steelmaker was found to have submitted a fabricated report on the deals to the FTC in an alleged to bid to attain a higher score in the assessment on the “shared growth with suppliers” by the Commission of Shared Growth for Large and Small Companies.The antitrust regulator also said POSCO’s PR contents on the fair trade deals posted on its website were insincer

Three debt-ridden units of Tong Yang Group filed for court receivership Monday, as part of the conglomerate’s desperate moves to avoid defaulting on corporate bonds and commercial paper totaling more than 100 billion won ($90.9 million) that matured on the day.The court is to manage assets of Tong Yang Inc. ― the group’s de facto holding firm ― Tong Yang Leisure and Tong Yang International and later could order the group owner to sell some corporate or private assets for management normalization

The South Korean stock market is expected to gather ground this week as foreign investors are anticipated to continue their buying rally, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index edged up 0.4 percent on Friday from a week earlier, closing at 2011.80.Earlier last week, Seoul shares gathered ground as the Federal Reserve decided to keep its current quantitative easing moves in place during the Federal Open Market Committee meeting held a week earlier.The growth, however, was l

Tong Yang Group chairman Hyun Jae-hyun has come under growing pressure to give up his personal properties as an emergency move to prevent the conglomerate from falling into default, according to some market insiders Sunday.The observers highlighted Financial Supervisory Service Gov. Choi Soo-hyun’s recent remarks that Tong Yang Group owners are required to take direct responsibility by conducting concrete measures.They also cite the lukewarm stance of the group’s creditors including the state-co