Two former and current executives of domestic petrochemical companies, accused of colluding to fix prices and securing unjust profits in the trillion won range, have been arrested.
Presiding Judge Lee Ji-young of the Seoul Central District Court issued a bench warrant on the morning of September 19 for former and current executives of petrochemical companies, Mr. Bae and Mr. Hwang, accused of violating the Fair Trade Act, citing concerns over potential destruction of evidence.
Out of the eight individuals for whom the prosecution requested warrants, including OCI CEO Kim Yu-sin and former PKC CEO Jang Young-soo, warrants for the remaining six were rejected. The court ruled that for three of them, there was a need to guarantee their right to defense as they are contesting the charges, and concerns over evidence destruction were not significant. For another individual, the court cited a lack of concerns over evidence destruction or flight risk, while for the remaining two, it stated, “The criminal charges are not sufficiently substantiated to warrant arrest,” and rejected the warrants.
Earlier, on September 14, the Fair Trade Investigation Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, headed by Na Hee-seok, requested bench warrants for eight former and current executives from five petrochemical companies: LG Chem, Aekyung Chemical, OCI, Lotte Fine Chemical, and PKC. Among them, six were current executives and two were former executives.
The prosecution suspects that these companies colluded in advance on the timing and extent of price increases for eight petrochemical products, including polyvinyl chloride (PVC), plasticizers, caustic soda, and hydrochloric acid, over several years. These products are fundamental materials widely used in construction and manufacturing. The collusion scale identified by the prosecution is reported to exceed 15 trillion Korean won.
The prosecution believes the companies exploited the unstable supply of raw materials like naphtha due to the Middle East war to engage in collusion instead of price competition. On August 5, they conducted raids on seven related companies, and on September 10, summoned representatives Kim and former representative Jang, among others, for questioning as suspects.
The prosecution has recently been investigating a series of collusion cases directly linked to the cost of living. In July, they referred four major domestic oil refiners and their executives to trial over allegations of colluding to fix oil prices worth 14.2 trillion Korean won. Prior to this, they investigated a flour price-fixing case worth approximately 6 trillion Korean won and a sugar price-fixing case worth 3.2 trillion Korean won, prosecuting the involved companies and executives.
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