“It has been confirmed that Homeplus was selling corporate bonds to both institutional and individual investors right up until they entered the corporate rehabilitation process,” Cho Seung-rae, the party’s chief spokesperson, said in a statement, Thursday.
The opposition party accused MBK Partners, Homeplus’ majority shareholder, of attempting to abscond with assets after years of financially strained, overleveraged management.
“If they are trying to dismantle Homeplus and escape under the pretext of corporate rehabilitation, such actions cannot be tolerated,” Cho said.
Drawing parallels to the 2012 case of LIG Construction — whose executives faced criminal charges for selling commercial paper despite impending bankruptcy — the Democratic Party insisted that MBK Partners should face similar judicial scrutiny.
The party also sharply criticized government regulators, accusing them of failing to exercise proper oversight.
It called for an immediate investigation to minimize investor losses and to “bring down the hammer of justice on MBK and management’s moral hazard.”
Homeplus, one of Korea’s leading retail chains, filed for court-supervised debt rehabilitation on Tuesday, sending shockwaves through an industry already reeling from financial instability.
The move follows last July’s crisis involving e-commerce platforms Tmon and WeMakePrice, which also struggled with liquidity issues.
MBK Partners has not publicly commented on the accusations.
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