A Seoul court was set to hold a hearing Thursday to determine whether to issue arrest warrants for the chiefs of e-commerce platforms TMON and WeMakePrice, as well as the CEO of their parent firm Qoo10, over large-scale payment delays to vendors. The Seoul Central District Court was scheduled to hold hearings later in the morning for Qoo10 CEO Ku Young-bae and the subsidiary CEOs Ryu Kwang-jin and Ryu Hwa-hyun over the massive insolvency incident. In late July, TMON and WeMakePrice filed for corporate rehabilitation with the Seoul Bankruptcy Court after failing to make payments to vendors using their platforms, resulting in over 1.5 trillion won (US$1.1 billion) in overdue payments. Prosecutors have since launched an investigation, accusing the corporate heads of defrauding vendors by having them continue business on their platforms despite knowing that they could not make vendor remittances. They are also accused of causing nearly 70 billion won of losses to TMON and WeMakePrice by funneling orders to an other Qoo10 subsidiary, QXPRESS, and embezzling 67.1 billion won from TMON and WeMakePrice to finance the parent firm's takeover of the American online e-commerce platform Wish. Prosecutors suspect the CEOs recognized signs of potential insolvency two years ago but underreported their overdue vendor payments to financial authorities, reporting only 46 billion won as of the end of 2022, which accounted for one-tenth of the actual amount. The court's decision on whether to grant arrest warrants for them is expected late Thursday at the earliest. Source: Yonhap News Agency
Middle East Crisis Deepens Global Hunger and Inflation
April 20, 2026