Special Prosecutor Min Joong-ki, who is investigating various allegations involving former President Yoon Suk Yeol's wife, Kim Keon-hee, speaks after the unveiling ceremony for his office at the KT Gwanghwamun Building in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 2nd. Yonhap News.

Allegations have been raised that Special Prosecutor Min Joong-ki, who is investigating suspicions related to Kim Keon-hee, earned a profit of over 100 million won through stock trading using undisclosed information around 2010.

Special Prosecutor Min has explained that the transactions were normal investments.

According to legal sources on the 17th, Min disclosed in his April 2008 asset filing, while serving as a senior judge at the Busan High Court, that he held 10,000 shares of unlisted stock in the solar material company NeoSemiTech, valued at 5 million won at par value.

Min purchased the shares in the early 2000s, shortly after the company was established.

His April 2010 report indicated that his holdings had increased to 12,306 shares following a public listing and capital increase, and his report from the following April stated that he sold all of these shares for a profit of 158.74 million won.

NeoSemiTech, established in February 2000, went public through a backdoor listing in October 2009 by merging with the KOSDAQ-listed company Mono Solar.

However, on March 24 of the following year, the company received a "disclaimer of opinion" from an accounting firm, leading to a five-month trading suspension. Amidst subsequent revelations of accounting fraud and embezzlement by management, the company was eventually delisted in August 2010.

Questions have been raised about the suspicious circumstances surrounding Min's successful "exit" with a profit of over 100 million won, while 7,000 individual investors collectively lost over 400 billion won.

The company's CEO at the time of Min's stock sale, surnamed Oh, is a classmate of Min from Daejeon High School and Seoul National University.

Oh was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2016 for charges including the illicit sale of 2.4 billion won worth of borrowed-name stocks and fleeing the country after learning that the company's accounting fraud would be exposed.

Yang Jae-taek, an attorney who served as an outside director for the company, is also a classmate from Daejeon High School and Seoul National University. He is also a contemporary of Min from the 14th Judicial Research and Training Institute class.

These connections fuel suspicions that Min may have obtained non-public information from Oh or attorney Yang to sell his shares.

Coincidentally, NeoSemiTech was reportedly mentioned during the special counsel team's face-to-face questioning of Kim Keon-hee last August.

When Kim claimed she was "not well-versed in stocks" and denied involvement in the Deutsch Motors stock manipulation scandal, the special counsel team reportedly countered by mentioning her 2009 investment in NeoSemiTech's bonds with warrants (BW).

It is said that the team also pressed her on whether she had invested based on a recommendation from attorney Yang, who is known to be a close acquaintance of hers.

Special Prosecutor Min maintains that there was no illegality in his stock trading.

The special counsel team stated in a press release that "Special Prosecutor Min invested approximately 30 to 40 million won in the company in the early 2000s, introduced by an acquaintance who was not a company official, and sold the shares for about 130 million won in 2010 at the recommendation of a securities firm employee." The intent of the statement was to clarify that he did not trade stocks based on non-public information obtained from the company's CEO.

However, no specific explanation has been provided regarding the identity of the "acquaintance" who recommended the unlisted stock investment, the specific circumstances that led to selling just before delisting, or the exact timing of the sale.

Yonhap News