Supreme Court Rules "Samsung Securities Must Pay 1.8 Billion Won for 'Ghost Stock Incident'"...Partial Victory for National Pension Service

National Pension Service Wins Lawsuit After Seven Years

On July 9, 2026, a steel fence was installed in front of the Supreme Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul, ahead of the verdict on former President Yoon Seok-yeol's 'obstruction of arrest' case. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung

The Supreme Court has upheld a ruling ordering Samsung Securities to pay KRW 1.8 billion to the National Pension Service to compensate for stock price losses caused by a "ghost stock dividend entry error." This decision comes seven years after the National Pension Service filed its lawsuit.

On August 12, the Supreme Court's Second Division (Presiding Justice Oh Kyung-mi) finalized a lower court ruling in favor of the National Pension Service, which had sued Samsung Securities for damages. Under this decision, Samsung Securities must pay KRW 1,866,800,000 in damages to the National Pension Service, along with delayed interest.

The incident began when an employee in Samsung Securities’ securities management team mistakenly entered dividends to be paid in 1,000 shares per employee, instead of KRW 1,000 per share for the employee stock ownership association. On April 6, 2018, due to this error, 2,812,956,000 shares—over 30 times Samsung Securities’ actual issued shares of 89 million—were credited to the brokerage accounts of 2,018 employee stock association members. When some employees sold these erroneously credited shares, Samsung Securities’ share price plummeted. During the trading session, the stock price dropped as much as 11.68% from the previous closing, reaching 35,150 won. In June 2019, the National Pension Service filed suit, seeking KRW 29.9 billion and interest for delayed payment.

In the first trial in August 2024, the court partially accepted the plaintiff’s claim, ordering Samsung Securities to pay the National Pension Service over KRW 1,866,000,000. The court pointed out, “Samsung Securities should have established internal protocols and guidelines for work procedures and requirements to prevent the risk of wrongful or excessive dividend payments, but failed to do so.” However, the court limited Samsung Securities’ liability to 50%, noting that “it would be excessive to hold Samsung Securities fully responsible for the losses suffered by the National Pension Service since the incident involved unintentional mistakes by the dividend staff and possible personal wrongdoing by some sales staff.”

Both the National Pension Service and Samsung Securities appealed, but in January the appellate court dismissed both appeals. The Supreme Court reached the same conclusion. The Supreme Court explained, “The lower court’s decision to acknowledge Samsung Securities’ liability and to limit that liability to 50% of the total losses was ultimately justified.”

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