Gu Bon-hyun, the 57-year-old heir of the LG Group, has been extradited to South Korea and arrested after eight years on the run amid allegations of stock manipulation.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Financial Crimes Investigation Unit announced that Gu was apprehended on November 9 after being extradited from Cambodia. He had been captured by local police in Cambodia in September 2026.
A court issued an arrest warrant for Gu on November 11 following a pre-arrest interrogation.
Gu's arrest comes nearly eight years after he fled to the Netherlands in October 2018, just before prosecutors began investigating him. The prosecution initiated its investigation in November 2018 but was unable to locate Gu, leading to the issuance of an arrest warrant in May 2019 and a request for an Interpol red notice. The case, initially handled by the prosecution, was transferred to the police following amendments to the Criminal Procedure Act, resulting in Gu's eventual capture.
According to police, Gu is accused of illegally acquiring a KOSDAQ-listed company without any capital from February 2016 to December 2017, then artificially inflating its stock price through false disclosures and profiting by selling his shares, amounting to 14.5 billion won.
He is also suspected of misusing company funds for personal expenses. Gu allegedly embezzled 4.6 billion won by using cash from affiliated companies for entertainment expenses and creating fictitious consulting contracts to siphon off money. Investigators also uncovered evidence that he lent funds from affiliated companies without collateral and provided corporate shares as collateral without authorization, resulting in an additional 12.3 billion won being misappropriated.
Gu has a history of being convicted for stock manipulation. He was sentenced to three years in prison by the Supreme Court in 2012 for illegally profiting 13.9 billion won while acquiring a new materials company in 2007.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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