Kakao founder indicted with detention on stock manipulation charges

Kim Beom-su, the founder of Kakao Corp. has been indicted with detention Thursday on charges of stock price manipulation tied to the South Korean tech giant’s takeover of SM Entertainment last year.

The Seoul Southern District Prosecutor's Office charged Kim with violating the Capital Markets Act, accusing him of inflating SM Entertainment’s share price in a bid to acquire a controlling stake in the K-pop agency during a competitive bidding war against Hybe. Hybe is the parent company of K-pop phenom BTS' label, Big Hit.

The indictment came some two weeks after the Seoul Southern District Court issued an arrest warrant for Kim and the tech tycoon was officially arrested.

Prosecutors have accused Kim and other Kakao executives of inflating SM Entertainment’s share price above Hybe’s tender offer price by funneling in some 240 billion won ($174 million) and purchasing shares at higher prices. The purchases were carried out on 553 occasions in mid-to-late February last year. Kakao also failed to report its stake during the bidding war, prosecutors added.

Of the 553 occasions, prosecutors had previously accused Kim of only being involved in the latter half of the purchases which were carried out on 190 occasions in a single trading day on Feb. 28 by buying 130 billion won worth of SM Entertainment shares through Kakao Corp. and Kakao Entertainment Corp. Kim allegedly colluded with former Kakao CEO Hong Eun-taek and Kim Sung-soo, former chief of Kakao Entertainment Corp. in the Feb. 28 deal. Hong and Kim Sung-soo have been indicted without detention on similar charges.

However, the prosecutors adopted a wider scope of accusations against Kim Beom-su on Thursday, claiming that the tech giant founder was also involved in the first half of the stock purchases carried out on Feb. 16-17 and Feb. 27, which account for 363 of the total 553 occasions. The stocks worth a total of 110 billion won were purchased through Oneasia Partners, an asset management company known for its special ties with Kakao. Former Kakao Chief Investment Officer Bae Jae-hyun was indicted with detention for violating the Capital Markets Act as well.

Prosecutors say that SM Entertainment’s shares were artificially inflated above 120,000 won per share — the fixed price at which Hybe was purchasing shares from investors -- as a result of the price rigging attempts. Hybe had initially acquired a 14.8 percent stake in the agency from its founder Lee Soo-man and offered to buy additional shares from small shareholders at the same price. However, the significant rise in the agency’s share price led to Hybe’s eventual withdrawal from the takeover war.

In March last year, Kakao and its subsidiary Kakao Entertainment secured a controlling 39.87 percent stake in SM Entertainment.

Prosecutors also claimed that Kim and other Kakao executives deleted conversations on its workplace team chat app Kakao Work in an attempt to destroy evidence.

Kakao Corp. pledged to “tell only the truth in upcoming trials in a sincere manner,” in a statement released shortly after the prosecutors indicted Kim. It added that it plans to minimize any leadership vacuum within the company.

Kim's attorneys claim that the acquisition was merely a legitimate stock purchase conducted on the market, while Kim himself denies all allegations against him.