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Bloomberg
The chief executive of Samsung Securities Co. resigned after the company was punished by South Korea’s financial regulator because an employee’s error sparked a $105 billion “ghost stock†blunder.
Koo Sung-hoon’s resignation was disclosed in a regulatory filing on July 27, a day after the Financial Services Commission ordered the firm to suspend Koo for three months. The firm was fined $129,000 and its stock brokerage business was barred from taking new clients for six months. The penalties were imposed after an employee in April mistakenly issued 2.8 billion shares to about 2,000 employees. The employee was supposed to issue 93 US cents per share in dividends under a company compensation plan.
The regulator also punished 13 employees who sold or were involved in trading the phantom shares deposited into accounts as a result of the blunder. They were each fined $27,000, according to a statement from the Financial Supervisory Service. Eight of them have been indicted on charges of embezzlement and fraud, according to the regulator.