The Korea Herald

지나쌤

House of senior prosecutor raided over suspicious stock purchases

By 임정요

Published : July 12, 2016 - 14:09

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Prosecutors on Tuesday raided the house of a senior prosecutor who has come under public scrutiny for suspicious stock transactions.

An ad hoc probe team investigating the case said it raided the house of Jin Kyung-joon, as well as the home and offices of Kim Jung-ju, founder of South Korea's leading online game maker Nexon Co., and the incumbent chairman of its holding firm NXC Corp.

The case involving Jin came to light early this year as the senior prosecutor reported a whopping increase in his personal wealth in 2015. All ranking government officials and lawmakers are required to disclose changes in their personal wealth annually.

Nexon allegedly lent some 400 million won ($348,000) to Jin in 2005, helping the senior prosecutor to amass some 12 billion won of profits through stock transactions by 2015.

The latest action came less than a week after the country's top prosecutor Kim Soo-nam designated Lee Keum-ro, chief of the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office, to head the independent team and thoroughly investigate the case.

The special team can investigate without supervision, having only to report its results to the prosecutor general.

Jin offered to quit in April when the allegations arose, but the justice ministry has not accepted the resignation. (Yonhap)