By Lee Hyo-sik
More than 30 CEOs and executives of seven suspended savings banks have been banned from leaving the country as investigators dig deeper into their alleged involvement in illicit lending and other irregularities.
Jeil, Jeil 2, Tomato, Prime, Daeyeong, ACE and Parangsae were suspended from operating for six months due to their poor capital adequacy ratio.
A joint team investigating the savings banks whose operations have been suspended by financial regulators since Sept. 18 said that it had asked the government to bar bank CEOs, executives and majority stakeholders from travelling overseas.
The team, set up last Thursday, comprises of 80 members from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, the National Police Agency, the Financial Supervisory Service, the National Tax Service and the Korea Deposit Insurance Corp.
“We think dozens of current and former CEOs at the troubled banks, as well as their executives were deeply involved in a wide range of wrongdoing. In order to question them in due time, we decided to prevent them from leaving the country,” a member of the investigation team said.
On Friday, the prosecution raided 20 locations, including headquarters of the banks and homes of their largest shareholders, securing accounting books, bills and computer hard discs.
After examining the seized materials, investigators plan to summon bank officials to question them about their alleged illegal lending and other irregularities.
“We are now going through the confiscated materials. As soon as we are done with it, we will interrogate those involved,” one member said.
The team is also considering raiding more bank branches and homes of executives.
During Friday’s search and seizure operation, Jeong Gu-haeng, president of Jeil 2 Mutual Savings Bank, committed suicide at his workplace.
Witnesses said Jeong told bank officials to cooperate with the investigation. He then left the office, saying he was going to the restroom.
The prosecution said a handwritten memo was found, in which the 50-year-old told executives: “Take care of bank affairs without me.”