Overview
- The Seoul Central District Court denied warrants for Michael ByungJu Kim and three executives after a record-length hearing, releasing them following appearances on Tuesday.
- The court said it found no pressing risk of flight or evidence tampering to justify pretrial detention.
- Prosecutors allege 116.4 billion won in fraud tied to asset-backed short-term bonds, commercial paper, and short-term bonds issued from Feb. 17 to Feb. 25, 2025 without disclosure of an imminent downgrade.
- Investigators say internal MBK documents indicate awareness of the downgrade at least 11 days before Feb. 17 and show signs of rehabilitation planning as early as 2023.
- Executives excluding Kim were arrested on separate accounting-fraud charges of about 1 trillion won related to debt-equity misclassification and inflated property valuations, while MBK and Homeplus deny all allegations.