Mirae Asset Securities headquarters in downtown Seoul / Courtesy of Mirae Asset Securities
By Anna J. Park
An employee of Mirae Asset Securities was found to have forged a convertible loan agreement (CLA) worth $210 million without approval from the securities firm’s official investment committee, leaving the company vulnerable to potential damages in global legal disputes.
According to the investment banking industry, Mirae Asset Securities discovered through an internal audit that the executive employee of the firm’s alternative investment division had forged the 30-page loan agreement and provided it to a U.S.-based renewable energy company in January 2021, promising to fund $210 million for the construction of a renewable diesel facility in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The January 2021 loan agreement, however, was never realized since. The employee attempted to renegotiate the terms of the deal, only to unilaterally terminate it later.
The case became known to the industry once Ryze Renewables Nevada LLC, the counterparty of the forged agreement, sought international arbitration against Mirae Asset during the first half of this year, in order to recover damages resulting from the unimplemented…
