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| Prosecutor General Lee One-seok, left, shakes hands with Korea Exchange Chairman Sohn Byung-doo at the latter's office in Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap |
By Lee Min-hyung
Prosecutor General Lee One-seok has vowed to root out stock market manipulation by introducing tougher punishments and confiscating illegal gains from unfair traders.
"We will do our best to eliminate all the motives (to engage in such unfair and illegal acts) and raise awareness that anyone involved in such behaviors will end up ruining themselves and their families," Lee told reporters during his visit to the Korea Exchange. This is the first time that the prosecution chief has publicly visited the Seoul office of the exchange operator.
The remark came amid escalating investor woes over multiple stock scandals involving the abrupt fall of listed shares here. While prosecutors are investigating key suspects behind the alleged stock manipulation scheme which saw eight stocks fall in price in April, a similar incident occurred recently, with five other listed shares suffering a similar fall for no apparent reason.
In response, the prosecution has teamed up with financial authorities to prevent further scandals in the local capital market.
Lee's visit to the Korea Exchange is also seen as a symbolic display of his will to get tougher on market manipulation.
"We cannot deny the widespread perception here that punishment for illegal and unfair trading acts remains weak," Lee said. "A revision to a local capital act is now pending at the National Assembly and we expect its swift passage for tougher punishment of violators."
In his closed-door meeting with Korea Exchange Chairman Sohn Byung-doo, Lee is known to have exchanged ideas on how to strengthen their cooperative activities against such illegal practices.
"The role of the prosecution is to enhance partnerships with the Financial Services Commission, the Financial Supervisory Service and the Korea Exchange and remove the criminal motives by slapping stronger punishments on them," Lee said. "In the process, we will keep protecting the rights of small investors and regain the trust from the market."
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