[THE INVESTOR] Nexon GT, an affiliate of game developer Nexon, saw its stock price plunge to a record low in 16 weeks amid the snow-balling investigation into founder Kim Jung-ju’s alleged involvement in insider trading.

The company’s stock price dropped 31.3 percent from 13,200 won (US$11.60) on April 7 to 10,050 won on July 20 -- the lowest since Feb. 15 when the share price plummeted to 9,920 won.

 
























Kim, currently chairing Nexon’s holding company NXC, is accused of providing insider information of Nexon to his close friend and senior prosecutor Jin Kyung-joon.

Jin is suspected to have bought 10,000 shares of then unlisted Nexon in 2005 for 425 million won that he had borrowed from the game company with no conditions.

Kim allegedly ordered the top executives of the firm to offer the investment money to Jin, Kim’s alumnus of Seoul National University.

The prosecutor sold the 10,000 shares for 1 billion won in 2006 and bought 85,000 shares of the firm again in the same year.

In 2015, Jin sold the shares of Nexon Japan, which went public in Tokyo in 2011, and earned 13 billion won of profit through the trade.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com">wone0102@heraldcorp.com)