Kim Beomsoo's Appeal in 'SM Stock Manipulation Case': Prosecutors Claim "Court Omitted Key Evidence"

Prosecution Requests HYBE Chairman Bang Si-hyuk as Witness

At the first appellate hearing, prosecutors argued for the guilt of Kim Beomsoo, founder of Kakao and head of the Future Initiative Center, who had been acquitted in the first trial on charges of manipulating SM Entertainment's stock price.

Kim Beom-su, head of Kakao's Future Initiative Center, who was acquitted in the first trial on suspicion of conspiring to manipulate the market price of SM Entertainment, is attending the first appeal trial on charges of violating the Capital Markets Act at the Seoul High Court in Seocho-gu on the 24th. Photo by Yonhap News.

The Criminal Division 4-1 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judges Kim Inkyum, Sung Ji-yong, and Jeon Ji-won) held a trial date for Kim on June 24 on charges of violating the Capital Markets Act, stating, "The court failed to make any determination on a large amount of evidence," as the reason for the appeal.

According to prosecutors, Kim and others were indicted on charges of manipulating the stock price by keeping it higher than the public tender offer price in order to block competitor HYBE's tender offer during Kakao's acquisition of SM Entertainment in February 2023.

The prosecution stated, "The first trial concluded that it was not absolutely necessary for Kakao to acquire management rights of SM Entertainment, but there is plenty of evidence showing that the acquisition was necessary and that Kakao made efforts to do so." They added, "The first trial based this conclusion solely on Kakao and Singapore's GIC meeting materials dated January 17, 2023, but around that date, both the defendant (Kim) and the Kakao group expressed a strong desire, stating 'The acquisition of SM is essential.'"

Regarding the first trial's conclusion that the testimony of Lee Junho, former Head of Investment Strategy at Kakao Entertainment, was false, prosecutors argued, "Some defendants acknowledged the contents of Lee's testimony, and documents such as KakaoTalk messages also confirm the facts."

On this day, the prosecution requested Bang Si-hyuk, Chairman of HYBE, as a witness. Although Bang had been selected as a witness in the first trial, he did not appear due to a business trip to the United States, resulting in the cancellation of his testimony.

The court announced that on July 22 it would hear arguments from the defense and then decide whether to accept additional witnesses.

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