"250 Applicants with 32.5 Billion Won in Losses… Demand Full-Scale Investigation into Lead Underwriters and Others"

"Individual Investors Suffer Massive Losses, While Shinhan Securities, Kiwoom Securities, and JTBC Profit"

JoongAng Ilbo and JTBC Headquarters [Provided by JoongAng Group. Resale and DB prohibited]

Investors in corporate bonds issued by JoongAng Group affiliates, including the general programming channel JTBC, urged financial authorities on the 13th to conduct a full-scale investigation into the entire process of issuing and selling the bonds, stating, "JTBC was effectively in a state of complete capital impairment even before issuing the corporate bonds."

The joint legal counsel for the JoongAng Group bond victims held a press conference at the Seoul Bar Association building in Jongno-gu that morning, announcing that they had submitted a petition containing these concerns to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) on the 10th.

The petition outlines the status of damages for 250 applicants whose bond losses have been verified (totaling approximately 32.52 billion won) and details requests for action from financial authorities.

The legal team explained, "Our internal tally shows that there are approximately 450 individual accounts that invested in JoongAng Group corporate bonds, with total investments amounting to about 76 billion won."

The counsel argued, "Excluding the 154.4 billion won in hybrid capital securities acquired by affiliates—which were classified as capital—JTBC’s actual total equity was negative 135.4 billion won," adding, "They avoided complete capital impairment by issuing 40 billion won worth of hybrid capital securities just before the closing of accounts."

"JTBC has recorded massive losses for three consecutive years, and audit reports noted liquidity risks in the event of failure to meet financial covenants or a credit rating downgrade," they added. "These are facts that could have been confirmed through public disclosure documents alone."

The legal team alleged that Shinhan Securities, the lead underwriter, concluded that "repayment of principal and interest would be manageable" and proceeded with the bond issuance despite being aware of these risks.

"Shinhan Securities listed the risk factors in its own due diligence report but still presented a positive conclusion," the counsel stated. "Furthermore, the on-site visit was replaced by a one-day conference call."

JTBC/JoongAng Ilbo Bond Victims' Solidarity Press Conference (Seoul=Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Chae-rin = On the 28th, a press conference organized by the JTBC/JoongAng Ilbo Bond Victims' Solidarity was held near the Blue House Sarangchae in Jongno-gu, Seoul, to "condemn the planned insolvency of JoongAng Group and urge compensation for creditors." They raised suspicions of a "planned insolvency" and called on the Blue House and other authorities to conduct a thorough investigation. 2026.6.28 lynn@yna.co.kr

They further claimed, "Even after the capital impairment was disclosed, corporate bond trading continued via brokerage applications without any clear warning signs," adding, "Circumstantial evidence also suggests that IR materials highlighting positive content were distributed to individual investors through KakaoTalk chat rooms managed by investment discretionary firms just before the issuance."

Regarding Kiwoom Securities, which sold short-term corporate bonds, the counsel alleged that customer service representatives directly guided or encouraged investors to opt out of the "Happy Call" (confirmation call) process, causing investor protection procedures to fail.

"While many individual investors suffered massive losses, Shinhan Securities, Kiwoom Securities, and JTBC gained significant economic benefits," the counsel said, reiterating the call for an investigation by financial authorities.

They added that they have requested an expansion of the investigation to include Hanyang Securities, on-exchange brokerage firms, discretionary investment firms, and credit rating agencies, in addition to Shinhan and Kiwoom. They also called for the consolidation of individual complaints and an immediate preservation order for key evidence, such as emails.

The JoongAng Group financial crisis erupted when JTBC declared a default on the 12th of last month, failing to repay 20.6 billion won in securitized borrowings upon maturity.

Two days later, on the 14th, JoongAng Holdings, Contentree JoongAng, JoongAng P&I, and Megabox JoongAng applied for rehabilitation proceedings, followed by JTBC, the epicenter of the crisis, on the 15th.

The court accepted JTBC's application for the Autonomous Restructuring Support (ARS) program and deferred its decision on the start of rehabilitation proceedings, while approving the start of such proceedings for the other four entities.

JoongAng Group bond investors have recently launched legal countermeasures, including appointing former Financial Supervisory Service Governor Lee Bok-hyun (54, 32nd Judicial Research and Training Institute), a former prosecutor, as their legal representative. [Yonhap News]