Bae Jae-hyun, former Kakao chief funding officer / Yonhap
Mirae Asset Securities faces a high-profile lawsuit from a former Kakao govt searching for compensation for property linked to a 2023 cybersecurity incident, which he claims are actually valued at 11 billion received ($7.56 million), in accordance with firm and authorized sources, Monday.
The cyberattack, which occurred between October and November 2023, allegedly siphoned a complete of seven.66 billion received — 3.73 billion received in money and three.93 billion received in shares — from a Mirae Asset Securities account belonging to Bae Jae-hyun, former chief funding officer at Kakao.
The incident befell whereas Bae was detained in reference to the SM Leisure inventory manipulation case.
Different high-profile figures, together with BTS member Jungkook and EcoPro Chairman Lee Dong-chae, had been reportedly focused, however their accounts had been protected by the brokerage’s monitoring system.
Bae has recovered 6.08 billion received of the stolen property, leaving 1.58 billion received nonetheless unrecovered. He’s demanding full compensation for this remaining quantity, notably noting that if he had stored the forcibly bought shares, their present market worth could be 11 billion received.
Mirae Asset has partly acknowledged accountability for the losses, however it stated compensation must be restricted to the unrecovered 1.58 billion received, not the inflated worth based mostly on present inventory costs.
“The coourt is unlikely to acknowledge the calculation based mostly on present inventory costs as compensable damages,” the corporate stated in a press launch, Monday.
Relating to its accountability for account safety, Mirae Asset emphasised that its three-step verification system, together with cell phone authentication, financial institution verification and authorities ID checks, was totally operational on the time.
The brokerage additionally famous that the stolen funds had been transferred to different accounts in Bae’s identify at Samsung Securities and Kbank, which means it shouldn’t bear full accountability for the losses.
Trade sources stated the case highlights ongoing issues about cybersecurity and legal responsibility in Korea’s monetary sector and will set a precedent for the way damages are assessed in incidents involving each money and shares.
