An employee of HD Hyundai Oilbank has been arrested on charges of colluding to manipulate oil prices amid the early stages of the US-Iran conflict. The arrest of this key employee is expected to accelerate the prosecution's investigation into oil price collusion.
According to legal sources on June 19, a judge at the Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant for Employee A from the pricing department of HD Hyundai Oilbank, citing concerns of evidence tampering. However, the warrant for Employee B, who works in the same department, was denied due to insufficient evidence of potential tampering or flight risk.
In February, as fears of a global spike in oil prices arose following the outbreak of the US-Iran conflict, allegations emerged that domestic oil companies were colluding to fix prices. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, led by Chief Prosecutor Na Hee-seok, has claimed that major oil companies played a significant role in arbitrarily adjusting fuel prices and has sought arrest warrants for executives from these firms on charges of violating monopoly regulations and fair trade laws.
The investigation targets South Korea's four major oil companies: SK Energy, GS Caltex, S-Oil, and HD Hyundai Oilbank. They are accused of conspiring to simultaneously raise or freeze the prices of fuel and petroleum products distributed in the country after prior consultations, thereby profiting excessively.
Prosecutors believe that the sharp rise in domestic oil prices immediately following the US-Iran conflict was a result of this planned collusion. They are also expanding their investigation to consider the possibility that a collusion system had been in place for an extended period prior to the outbreak of the conflict.
Additionally, prosecutors are investigating allegations that oil companies have abused their dominant market position against independent gas stations. They suspect that these companies forced contracts that required independent stations to purchase fuel at higher prices than those supplied to their directly operated stations.
Moreover, independent gas stations were reportedly bound by contracts that restricted them to only supplying products from specific oil companies, effectively blocking their right to choose cheaper alternatives from other suppliers and stifling price competition.
On March 23, prosecutors launched a series of simultaneous raids on the four major oil companies and the Korea Petroleum Association as part of their investigation. With the recent arrest of the HD Hyundai Oilbank employee, the prosecution is expected to expedite further investigations and seek additional arrest warrants for officials from other oil companies.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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