Kim Tae-seop, chairman of Barun Electronics, a semiconductor company, was arrested for manipulating stock prices and taking profits of 20 billion won.
Kim was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and a four-month suspended prison sentence by the court on Dec. 21 last year for offering a bribe worth 200 million won to a retired FSS official. At that time, the company saw its stocks fall for three consecutive trading days.
The Southern Seoul District Prosecutors' Office said it arrested Kim on charges of violating the capital market law.
Earlier in November 2015, there was a news that the company will receive 100 billion won in investment from a Chinese state-run company in memory semiconductor production equipment. The company's stock price was only 1,805 won per share on Nov. 3 before the announcement was made, but it continued to jump to reach 5,870 won on Dec. 4.
Meanwhile, the prosecution believes the false information was led by Kim. The prosecution explained that Kim and others earned more than 20 billion won in unjust profits by leaking false information about the inducement of the Chinese investment.
In addition, Kim is known to have violated his obligation to report to the Financial Supervisory Service and the Korea Exchange if the shareholding rate is more than 5 percent within five days.
