Kakao's Kim Bum-soo is not guilty of manipulating SM's stock price, making it difficult to judge artificial manipulation
Oct 21, 2025
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On the 21st, the Seoul Southern District Court's Criminal Agreement Department 15 (Chief Judge Yang Hwan-seung) acquitted Kim Bum-soo, chairman of the Management Reform Committee, of violating the Capital Markets Act. Former Kakao Investment CEO Bae Jae-hyun, who was indicted on the same charges, and Kakao and Kakao Entertainment were also acquitted.
The court said that there is not enough evidence to consider it as a market price manipulative order when looking at all the purchase ratio, time interval, and volume order. It is hard to say that the purpose was to artificially manipulate the market price and fix it at a higher level than the normal market price"I judged.
Chairman Kim Bum-soo is accused of manipulating the market price by colluding with private equity firm One Asia Partners to fix the stock price higher than the open price (120,000 won) in order to hinder the tender offer of Hive, a rival, during the acquisition of SM in February 2023.
Chairman of the states Affairs Commission Kim said, `I hope it will serve as an opportunity to escape the shadow of stock price manipulation and market price manipulation that has been hanging over Kakao."
Reporter Baek Ji-eun, silk781220@sportschosun.com , photo = Yonhap News
silk781220@sportschosun.com
