S. Korean man gets 5 years in jail for stock manipulation

SEOUL, Jan. 25 (Yonhap) -- A Seoul court sentenced a South Korean executive of Deutsche Securities to five years in jail on Monday for involvement in a case condemned as a manipulation of the country's stock market.

The Seoul Central District Court handed down the ruling on the executive, identified only by his family name Park. The court also fined Deutsche Securities 1.5 billion won (US$1.2 million) and ordered it to forfeit 1.18 billion won.

The court also ordered Deutsche Bank to forfeit 43.6 billion won.

The ruling came more than five years after an incident known here as the "Nov. 11 Options Shock" caused heavy losses among investors.

Deutsche Bank and Deutsche Securities sold 2.44 trillion won worth of local stocks just 10 minutes before the market closed on Nov. 11, 2010, leading the KOSPI 200 Index to plummet nearly five points to 247.51.

Deutsche Securities is presumed to have pocketed about 44.9 billion won from the incident.

Deutsche Bank offered an apology over the incident and said it is committed to compliance with applicable laws and regulation in all jurisdictions.

"Deutsche Bank respectfully acknowledges the court's decision regarding its Korean subsidiary Deutsche Securities Korea and regrets and apologizes for the circumstances that led to this verdict," the bank said in an English-language statement.

Deutsche Bank said it will decide whether to appeal the ruling after consulting with its lawyers.

It remains unclear whether three Deutsche Securities employees at the firm's Hong Kong branch will stand trial in Seoul for their involvement in the case.

The three later quit the company and their whereabouts remain unknown.

South Korea has requested that Britain, France and Hong Kong hand them over to Seoul for prosecution, though Seoul has yet to locate them.

entropy@yna.co.kr
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