Refer Report
Koo Young-bae, CEO of Q10 Group, appeared on July 30th at the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee to ask questions about the Timon and WeMakePrice non-settlement issues and showed a stern expression while receiving questions from lawmakers. Senior Reporter Park Min-gyu
The prosecution, which is investigating the non-settlement of Timon and WeMakePrice (TimePrice) sales proceeds, summoned Koo Young-bae, CEO of Q10 Group, for questioning on the 30th. It has been about two months since the prosecution formed a dedicated Timeef investigation team and searched and seized CEO Koo’s home.
Representative Koo appeared at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office on this day and said, “I will be investigated faithfully.” Prosecutors have been investigating CEO Koo on charges of embezzlement and fraud. CEO Koo is accused of using the amount that should have been settled to the sellers of Timeep, an affiliate of the company, to acquire overseas platform companies such as ‘Wish’, and of continuing to sell gift certificates at a discount through Timef, knowing that it would be difficult to settle the sales price. The amount of embezzlement that the prosecution is currently aware of is approximately 50 billion won, and the scale of fraud is approximately 1.4 trillion won.
CEO Koo, the final decision-maker of the Q10 Group, was designated as the ‘peak’ of this Timeef incident. CEO Koo focused on increasing the size of the group in order to list Q Express, the group’s logistics affiliate, on Nasdaq, and in the process of unreasonably acquiring other platform companies, he used up sales proceeds from affiliates such as Timeep, causing a non-settlement situation. is under suspicion.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office sped up the investigation after forming a dedicated investigation team (headed by Chief Prosecutor Lee Jun-dong) on July 29 under the direction of former Prosecutor General Lee Won-seok. On August 1, the headquarters of TimePrice and the homes of former CEO Timon Ryu Gwang-jin and WeMakePrice CEO Ryu Hwa-hyeon were searched.
The prosecution began investigating other witnesses and suspects. First, Lee Si-jun, head of Q10’s financial division, who was actively involved in Q10 Group’s fund management, was summoned, and executive-level officials in charge of the company’s finances, including Kwon Do-wan, head of Timon’s operations business division, and Hwang Jun-ho, head of WeMakePrice’s partner growth support team, were also summoned and investigated. On the 19th and 20th, Ryu Gwang-jin, CEO of Timon, and Ryu Hwa-hyun, CEO of WeMakePrice, were summoned and intensive investigations were conducted. On the 24th, Kim Hyo-jong, CEO of Q10 Technology, who is known to be in charge of the organization and personnel of the Q10 Group, was also summoned and investigated. The fact that the prosecution summoned Representative Koo is interpreted to mean that they have secured a significant amount of evidence to prove the charges against Representative Koo through the statements of witnesses and suspects and confiscated items obtained through the investigation.
It is reported that the prosecution will summon CEO Koo for further investigation this week. Prosecutors are expected to focus their investigation into how CEO Koo misappropriated Timef funds and what he used those funds for.
Source: Korean