On September 22, Korean prosecutors stormed Japan-based Daiwa Securities’ Seoul office in the Yeouido district. Eight prosecutors and cops seized a large amount of electronic data and documents, including HR data, instant messenger chats and email.
The search came after prosecutors obtained circumstantial evidence that a former executive of Daiwa Securities, age 46, prodded domestic and foreign institutional investors of his acquaintance into buying 200,000 shares of a KOSDAQ-listed company in return for hundreds of millions of won in kickbacks from brokers in 2010.
The former executive has been arrested on charges of taking and brokering bribes. The prosecution plans to expand its investigation into other alleged perpetrators on the basis of the seized data.
At the end of last month, prosecutors stormed the main office of Goldman Sachs Korea in Seoul and arrested a former director of Goldman Sachs Asset Management on the same charges.
