Ananti CEO Lee Mangyu Acquitted Again in Appeal on False Disclosure Charges... Prosecution's Appeal Dismissed

Court Rules Original Not-Guilty Verdict Was Justified

The prosecutor's appeal against Lee Man-gyu, CEO of Ananti, and Lee Hong-gyu, former Chief Financial Officer (CFO), who were brought to trial on charges of making false disclosures in their business report, has been dismissed.

On June 18, the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Appellate Division 4-1 (Presiding Judge Song Jung-ho) dismissed the prosecution's appeal and upheld the original verdict for CEO Lee and former CFO Lee, who had been indicted on charges of violating the Act on External Audit of Stock Companies and the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act.

The bench stated, "The lower court's decision to find the defendants not guilty on all counts, including those in the indictment, is reasonable and acceptable," adding, "The additional statements made by the Financial Supervisory Service official in the appellate court did not differ from those examined at the lower court and had no significant impact."

Previously, the defendants in this case were indicted on charges of falsely disclosing their business report by recording tens of billions of won in unaccounted corporate funds as advances during 2015 to 2016. The first-instance court ruled, "The Korean International Financial Reporting Standards (K-IFRS) are principle-based, so among the available accounting methods, one that best reflects the economic substance should be selected, and therefore different accounting treatments may be possible for the same case," and found it difficult to recognize intentional wrongdoing, resulting in a not-guilty verdict.

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