Former Lime Asset executive gets 15-year sentence

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Former Lime Asset executive gets 15-year sentence

Published: 29 Jan. 2021, 18:18

Lee Jong-pil, former vice president at Lime Asset Management. [YONHAP]

The Seoul Southern District Court sentenced Lee Jong-pil, former vice president of Lime Asset Management, to 15 years in prison on Friday.

The court also ordered Lee to pay 4 billion won ($3.57 million) in fines and pay back 1.4 billion won.

Lee was under investigation after being arrested in July for allegedly inflating asset prices and covering up losses incurred by the asset management company's funds early last year, which led to suspension of withdrawal totaling almost 1.6 trillion won.

“Although Lee was aware of the massive losses incurred in International Investment Group, Lee covered it up by reconstructing the master-feeder fund,” the court said. “Even after the fund became weak to the extent that reselling underlying assets was almost impossible, he constantly sold it to investors without noticing them.”

“Lee's crime caused huge individual and social damage, but he is strongly arguing that there is nothing wrong with his work performance,” the court added. "We don't think he has the sense of ethics that any person running a financial investment business and has managed trillions of won should have."

The court also sentenced Won Jong-jun, head of Lime Asset Management, to three years in prison with a 300-million-won fine.

BY CHEA SARAH [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]