The National Assembly's National Policy Committee decided to call the heads of South Korea's major oil refiners as witnesses for its parliamentary audit of government agencies. All witnesses related to single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds, including former Presidential Office policy chief Kim Yong-beom, were rejected after the Democratic Party of Korea objected.
At a full committee meeting at the National Assembly on the 1st, the panel adopted as witnesses SK Energy CEO Kim Jong-hwa, HD Hyundai Oilbank CEO Song Myung-jun, GS Caltex CEO Hur Sea-hong and S-OIL CEO Anwar A. Al-Hejazi. Committee members from both the ruling and opposition parties plan to question them over how fuel dispensers let customers choose between fixed volumes and fixed amounts.
Elliott Management Chairman Paul Singer was also included among the witnesses. Elliott, a U.S. private equity fund, won on the same day in a remanded arbitration in the investor-state dispute settlement case it brought against the South Korean government. The court found that the government's intervention in 2015 to support the merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries affected Elliott's losses.
Committee members also plan to question Homeplus CEO Cho Ju-yeon, Toss Place CEO Choi Jae-ho and Lee Sang-cheol, head of NAVER's Place business division. They plan to examine the Homeplus corporate rehabilitation case with Cho, and with Choi and Lee the allegation that NAVER withheld order and payment information only from Toss POS while providing it to other point-of-sale operators.
The adoption of witnesses related to single-stock leveraged ETFs, including Kim, which the People Power Party had repeatedly demanded, was blocked entirely by the Democratic Party's opposition. People Power Party committee members said, "Not a single one of the 39 general witnesses our party requested was adopted," adding, "What on earth is the Democratic Party afraid of? If it does not agree to have the key parties appear at the parliamentary audit, it should explain to the public why."
