 |
| gettyimagesbank |
By Yi Whan-woo
More than one out of four criminals convicted of stock price manipulation and other unfair trading practices are repeat offenders, while nearly half of them get off lightly with suspended jail terms, data showed on Tuesday.
According to Financial Services Commission (FSC) data submitted to Rep. Kang Byung-won of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), 23 percent of the 643 people who were convicted of criminal offenses in the capital market between 2019 and 2022 have records of committing such unlawful acts more than once.
Those offenses included deceiving investors by controlling or artificially affecting the price of securities and buying or selling stocks based on insider information.
In particular, some 30 percent of 175 violators convicted in 2020 were not first-time offenders. Such a rate of repeat offenses involving unfair trading practices was higher than that of robbery at 19.7 percent and assault and battery at 11.7 percent.
Under the circumstances, 53.5 percent of the 854 people that the FSC reported to the prosecution for fraudulent and other unlawful trading practices did not face criminal charges.
"It means more than one out of two people did not even stand before a court after allegedly violating the law on fair trading though whether or not they are guilty needed to be determined by a judge," Rep. Kang said.
And even if the alleged offenders were found guilty, 48.5 percent of the 103 related cases ended up with the convicts being sentenced to suspended jail terms from 2020 to 2021.
"You can see that nearly half of them received conditional jail terms or were not put behind bars after inflicting financial damage on investors," the lawmaker said.
For those who were sentenced to prison, the jail terms were far shorter compared to the cases of conviction in the United States, according to the data.
For instance, a Seoul court sentenced an executive at JU Group, a multi-level marketing firm, to six years in prison for stock manipulation in 2006 and 2007.
In contrast, a U.S. court in 2000 sentenced Sholam Weiss, a convicted fraudster, to 845 years in prison for racketeering, wire fraud, money laundering, and other charges in connection to the collapse of an insurance company.
Former chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange, financier Bernie Madoff, was sentenced to 150 years in jail in 2009 for defrauding thousands of investors of billions of dollars.
"Soft punishment in Korea will do nothing to root out stock manipulation and the level of punishment should be toughened so that no one can think of committing crimes in the market," Rep. Kang added.
![[INTERVIEW] 'Now is time for Koreans to unlock potential in Africa'](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/9236a17d88ea472b862b237c9788069d.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
![[INTERVIEW] Meet the man behind giant rubber ducks that once took over Seoul](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/df32c60c8204448e98ccdb9841366bec.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
