More than six years after the Lime and Optimus fund scandal, 40 investors have yet to receive compensation.
On September 25, Park Seong-hoon, a member of the National Assembly from the People Power Party, analyzed data from the Financial Supervisory Service regarding the status of compensation for major redemption suspension fund victims from 2022 to July of this year. The analysis revealed that 40 victims of the Lime and Optimus fund scandal have not yet received their compensation.
In the case of the Lime Fund, 23 individuals from bank sales and 17 from securities firm sales are still awaiting compensation.
The Lime Fund scandal erupted in 2019 when allegations surfaced that Lime Asset Management manipulated returns through improper trading of convertible bonds of KOSDAQ-listed companies, leading to a collapse in stock prices and subsequent redemption suspensions.
The Optimus Fund scandal involved a scheme in 2020 where public institutions and local governments attracted investors by claiming to invest in revenue bonds guaranteed by them, only to invest in private bonds of insolvent companies, resulting in losses exceeding 400 billion won.
Park Seong-hoon stated, "Financial authorities should not merely stop at dispute resolution but must identify the reasons for the prolonged lack of compensation in these cases to prevent the victim relief process from dragging on unnecessarily."
The compensation rates for major private fund scandals that led to redemption suspensions varied significantly depending on the type of fund and the sales channel.
For instance, the KTB Aircraft Fund had a compensation amount of 42.68 million won out of a total loss of 4.58886 billion won, resulting in a compensation rate of only 0.93%. In contrast, the Heritage Fund achieved a 100% compensation rate, with 2.7 billion won in losses fully compensated for bank sales, and 43.1705 billion won compensated out of 43.465 billion won in losses for securities firm sales, nearly reaching 100%.
The compensation rate for the Lime Fund from securities firm sales was 89.95% (with losses of 213.847 billion won and compensation of 192.362 billion won), while the rate for bank sales was 64.58% (with losses of 121.325 billion won and compensation of 78.357 billion won).
For the Optimus Fund, 135.05 billion won was compensated out of 193.15 billion won in losses, resulting in a compensation rate of 69.92%.
Additionally, the Discovery Fund had a compensation rate of 50.56% for securities firm sales and 71.94% for bank sales, while the Italian Healthcare Fund had a compensation rate of 79.08% for bank sales.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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