In a recent ruling by the Seoul Southern District Court, Koo Yeon-kyung, the eldest daughter of the late LG Group chairman Koo Bon-moo, and her husband, Yoon Kwan, representative of BlueRun Ventures, were acquitted of charges concerning insider trading linked to the misuse of unpublished information. They were accused of illegally acquiring stocks from a listed bio company prior to a significant investment announcement, which prosecutors argued resulted in substantial financial gains amounting to over 1 billion won.

The prosecution had called for severe punitive measures, seeking a two-year prison sentence and a substantial fine for Yoon, alongside a one-year prison sentence and a lower fine for Koo, claiming the couple had acted on confidential corporate information to their advantage. However, the court highlighted the lack of direct evidence indicating that Yoon had passed on any such information to Koo, asserting that her stock purchases were not deemed unusual and lacked conclusive proof of wrongdoing.

Additionally, the court noted that Koo had not realized any substantial profit from the stock trading in question, as she retained ownership of the shares and later donated them to the LG Welfare Foundation. This decision has sparked discussions about the adequacy of legal frameworks governing insider trading and the criteria needed to establish guilt in such cases, suggesting that the charges against the couple were overly aggressive and not sufficiently substantiated.