By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
John Grayken, chairman of the U.S. investment fund Lone Star, will testify in a Seoul court as a witness in a stock price rigging case involving its Korean branch, according to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and the Seoul Central District Court Friday.
The exact date of his arrival was not disclosed. He plans to take the witness stand in the trial on either next Wednesday or Friday when Paul Yoo, president of Lone Star Advisors Korea, stands trial on charges of manipulating stock prices in merger between the Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) and its credit card unit.
Yoo, Lone Star vice chairman Ellis Short, and general counsel Michael Thomson allegedly manipulated the credit card unit's stock price in November 2003 by spreading rumors about a capital reduction to push down the credit card company's stock price to cut merger costs. Yoo has denied the charges and the Lone Star chairman is expected to back Yoo's denial of the allegation.
The prosecution had asked the U.S. to extradite Short and Thomson to Korea for the investigation.
Prosecutors suspended indicting Grayken as he was not in Korea, but could consider banning him from leaving the country.
According to the law, the prosecution can impose an overseas travel ban on a foreign national who is under investigation for crimes punishable with a jail term of more than three years or whose indictment had been suspended.
However, they are more likely to ask him to volunteer for questioning instead of summoning him by force, considering that he is coming to Korea for the trial voluntarily and that he is head of the global fund.
rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr