Prosecutors Reapply for Arrest Warrant for Daesang CEO over Starch Price-Fixing Allegations

Daesang, Sajo CPK, and Others Suspected in 10 Trillion Won Price-Fixing Scheme
Court Dismisses Warrant, Citing "Insufficient Evidence of Involvement"

Prosecutors have re-applied for an arrest warrant for the CEO of Daesang, a domestic food company suspected of colluding to fix prices of starch and sugar products. Previously, the court had issued an arrest warrant for the head of Daesang’s business division, but dismissed the warrant for the CEO, citing “insufficient evidence” of collusive activity.

Immo Lee, CEO under suspicion of collusion in the starch and sugar industry, is attending a warrant hearing at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the 31st. Photo by Yonhap News

According to legal sources on April 10, the Fair Trade Investigation Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office (headed by Chief Prosecutor Na Heeseok) re-applied for an arrest warrant the previous day for Im, the CEO of Daesang, who is under suspicion of violating the Fair Trade Act.

Earlier, prosecutors had requested arrest warrants for these individuals on March 26, on charges of fixing the sales prices of starch and sugar products in advance and colluding on prices during bidding processes with large end-users.

On March 31, the court issued an arrest warrant for Kim, the head of Daesang’s starch and sugar business division, citing “concerns about destruction of evidence and flight risk” in relation to Fair Trade Act violations. However, the arrest warrants for CEO Im of Daesang and CEO Lee of Sajo CPK were each dismissed due to “insufficient evidence regarding collusion” and “no concerns about destruction of evidence or flight risk,” respectively.

The prosecution reportedly decided to re-apply for the warrant, believing that it would be difficult to eradicate collusive practices unless the final decision maker is detained.

This starch and sugar price-fixing case, labeled as an “essential goods collusion” incident, is closely related to a variety of staple food ingredients such as glucose, fructose, corn syrup, oligosaccharides, alternative sweeteners, and gluten. Both inside and outside the prosecution, this is being regarded as “Season 2 of the investigation into crimes disrupting the livelihood economy.”

The prosecution has launched a direct investigation upon uncovering indications that Daesang, Samyang, Sajo CPK, and CJ CheilJedang, as oligopolistic firms in the starch and sugar sector, engaged in price-fixing worth over 10 trillion won over the past eight years. Based on prior analysis before launching the investigation, the prosecution judged that the scale of the price-fixing in this case far exceeds that of previously uncovered sugar or flour cartels, and has had a seriously negative impact on consumer prices felt by the general public.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.