Korea Development Bank (Chairman Lee Dong-geul) filed a lawsuit for compensation for damages against a sports Seoul reporter who reported a column criticizing Chairman Lee Dong-geol and San-eun, who denies Kiko’s incomplete sale. It is pointed out that it is a ‘silenced’ lawsuit after requesting compensation for damages rather than correction or objection against an individual reporter.
On October 18th, Sports Seoul published a reporter column titled’Lee Dong-Geul’s Strange Logic “Kiko, incomplete sales but not incomplete sales.” In a column, reporter Kwon Oh-cheol pinpointed the point that Chairman Lee Dong-geol attended the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee’s Governor’s Office to sell Kiko to small and medium-sized businesses and admitted that he did not provide price information (of the Kiko option), but said, “It is not an incomplete sale.” The column wrote, “Chairman Lee’s logic that it is not an incomplete sale without giving accurate information about the product is the same as saying,’I drunk and drove, but I wasn’t driving.”
The KIKO crisis refers to a situation in which more than 700 businesses suffered 3 trillion damages, including 50 small and medium-sized businesses that went bankrupt due to a currency option product called KIKO sold by banks. Kiko made it possible for companies (customers) to sell foreign currency at a pre-agreed exchange rate and amount when the exchange rate moves within a certain range. However, if the exchange rate was higher than the upper limit of the contract (Knock-In), foreign currencies were sold at lower than the market exchange rate, and if the exchange rate was lower than the lower limit (Knock-Out), the contract was invalidated, causing the company to bear the risk. In short, as the exchange rate rises, the company suffers enormous damage. This led to corporate bankruptcy as the government implemented a high exchange rate policy in the 2008 global financial crisis.
The Supreme Court actually raised the bank’s hand in the 2013 Kiko case, but the following year, a transcript of calls between bank employees was released later. In 2018, as it was revealed that the Kiko case was used in a trial transaction at the Supreme Court of Yang Seung-tae, the Financial Supervisory Service received an application for a victimized company that had not been judged by the court and set out to resolve the dispute. The Dispute Mediation Committee recognized the incomplete sale and recommended compensation to the banks. Except for Woori Bank, all banks did not follow the recommendations, and the KDB was the only one that was unable to participate in the compensation self-regulating banking body. Currently, the police are re-investigating the Kiko case.
Saneun filed a civil suit of 100 million won in damages claiming that the column was false. The purpose of raising the issue is that Chairman Lee never used the expression “I sold it incompletely” like the column title. According to reporter Kwon, the public relations team of Saneun protested the day after the report, and Sports Seoul changed the direct quotes to single quotes, and now it is revised to’Kiko, the strange logic of Lee Dong-geul’, incomplete sales but not incomplete sales. However, San-eun filed a lawsuit against reporter Kwon.
The KDB demanded compensation for damages, not a request for correction or objection to the report. “Reporter Kwon seriously undermined the existing position of KDB by posting an article with the title that seems to have admitted that the sale of Kiko’s products was incomplete by Chairman Lee Dong-geol to report serious misunderstandings.” It appears as if the Bank of Korea overturned its existing position and admitted to incomplete sales, increasing the likelihood of being liable for damages related to the sales of Kiko products.”
Reporter Kwon said, “In the title and article, it was clearly written that Chairman Lee insisted that it was not’incomplete sales,’ and no articles that misunderstood the column were reproduced.” “The head of the state-owned bank, operated by the state tax, made unreasonable claims against reporters. Hiring a large law firm and filing a billion-dollar lawsuit while opening it is difficult to interpret only with the intention of curbing reporters who write articles for the public interest.”
The Kiko Joint Countermeasure Committee, formed by the Kiko victims, issued a statement and said, “It is difficult to imagine a state-owned bank that scares reporters who write articles for the public good even if they apologize and compensate for Kiko victims, but it is difficult to imagine what we are seeing. “Chairman Lee said, “Please immediately withdraw the lawsuit filed by the Korea Development Bank against the reporter and fulfill its responsibilities and obligations to the affected company.” They said, “The reason that Chairman Lee sued journalists was aiming at freedom of speech by paying taxes on state-owned banks,” and said, “Kiko victims also decided to respond jointly.”
Reporter A of another media company who covered the Kiko incident in-depth said, “The Financial Supervisory Service Dispute Mediation Committee has also acknowledged incomplete sales. I believe that the purpose of the article’s title also corresponds to the facts, but it seems a sign that the state-run banks will shut up their mouths on individual reporters because they did not express the same words as Chairman Lee’s words. “It is something that state-owned banks should not do, which puts pressure on individuals to deal with legal disputes over reports.”
Recently, as Hana Bank and Woori Bank have also filed suits with media and reporters who reported the corruption mentioned by the chief executive, the countermeasures against corruption through lawsuits against the banking sector are remarkable.
Woori Bank and Kwon Kwang-seok, the vice-chairman of the bank (at the time, vice-chairman) applied for mediation to the Media Arbitration Committee, requesting the deletion of the article last month and compensation of 1 billion won against Sherlock, who reported that Kwon was involved in the fraudulent hiring of new employees. Sherlock revealed that there is no falsehood in the content, and no adjustment was made. Captain Kwon withdrew the complaint. Hana Bank filed a criminal charge against two producers of MBC’s’Straight’ who dealt with allegations of corruption, such as Lone Star’s’Fuck’ involvement, suspicion, fraudulent employment, and the Optimus case for two consecutive weeks last month, and charged 500 million won in damages.
At the time, MBC said, “Hana Bank did not reveal which part was false. It is very unusual to file a lawsuit against a reporter for 500 million won and inform the media.”
Park Sang-gyu, CEO of Sherlock, said, “In the case of Woori Bank, we requested that we cover only the name of the bank manager without taking into account other corruption articles. “The vice-president personally came out and asked persistently to cover only the name when the Sherlock reporters met with the staff of Woori Bank’s public relations office.”
Deuk-eui Kim, the head of the Financial Justice Solidarity, said, “They have a common point in filing a complaint against the media that reported corruption by the banking sector. The reports reported on the corruption issue mentioned by KDB Chairman Lee Dong-geol, Woori Bank Chairman Kwon Kwang-seok, and Hana Bank also Chairman Ham Young-ju, but it is viewed as a’poor’ to block additional coverage and prevent other media reports.”
The Korea Development Bank said, “It is difficult to confirm the lawsuit” when asked the reason for the claim against individual reporters.
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