Michael ByungJu Kim won a key victory after a South Korean court rejected prosecutors’ request to detain the billionaire co-founder of buyout firm MBK Partners as part of a probe into the firm’s management of supermarket chain Homeplus, which entered court-led rehabilitation last year.
South Korean prosecutors are investigating Kim and three others on charges including fraud, examining how Homeplus slid from being the nation’s second-largest retailer into financial distress and eventual rehabilitation.
The judge on Wednesday rejected a request by prosecutors to arrest Kim while they investigate MBK Partners’ handling of Homeplus, which was once one of the buyout firm’s biggest and most ambitious investments in Korea. The 62-year-old attended the hearing that ended late Tuesday.
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