Hundreds of investors facing losses from their investment in Tong Yang Group debts will ask the state auditor to probe regulatory officials for belated efforts regarding Tong Yang’s default, a consumer advocate group representing the investors said Monday.
The Financial Consumer Agency plans to lodge a request this week with the national auditor on behalf of 340 investors for a probe on the officials at the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service in charge of overseeing potential corporate risks, the advocate group said.
“No one from the financial authorities is coming forward to take the responsibility so we’ve come to the conclusion that bringing those to account has become inevitable,” Cho Nam-hee, the head of the consumer agency, said.
Their move came as the liquidity crisis of Tong Yang Group, South Korea’s 38th-largest conglomerate, has incurred big financial losses among more than 20,000 investors who parked their savings in funds tied to Tong Yang assets.
The family-run conglomerate has been placed under a debt restructuring since it filed five of its affiliates for court receivership in late September, after it failed to pay back its debts.
Groups of individual investors enraged by the sudden collapse of Tong Yang Group, have staged rallies in front of the FSC and FSS buildings, urging the regulators to take responsibility for negligence and misleading the investors on imminent risks. (Yonhap News)
