Company indebted, workers lost their jobs, but the owner's wealth growing. Miracle?

log date: 2026-5-29

The police forcibly dispersed employees who were staging a hunger strike in front of the Blue House, demanding a resolution to the Homeplus crisis.They have requested a meeting with the President.
Reported by Service union (서비스연맹) on 2026-5-25.

Employees of Homeplus Co., Ltd. (hereinafter Homeplus 홈플러스), demanding a meeting with the President Lee in front of the Blue House, South Korea.

Homeplus employees ended up into a hunger strike in the front of the Blue House
after being ignored while waiting for a response from the Lee administration
following a press conference held on 2026-5-19.

On January 14, 2026, all requests for arrest warrants against Homeplus executives including Michael Byoung-ju Kim (김병주) the owner of MBK Partners, who was the cause of the Homplus crisis, were dismissed. The predictions that the public had feared and criticized have become reality.

In the substantive hearing following the requests for arrest warrants, the court released Byoung-ju Kim on the grounds that the charges against him were not sufficiently proven to justify his detention.

An arrest warrant was requested to prevent the destruction of evidence and obstruction of the investigation, thereby enabling a proper investigation to proceed; however, absurdly, the request was denied on the grounds that the investigation had not been sufficiently conducted.

Immediately upon his release, Michael Kim told reporters, "I will do my best for the company in crisis." Subsequently, he announced the suspension of operation at seven additional stores, effectively demonstrating a lack of will to save the company.

One of the reasons why the public demanded the arrest of Michael Kim was that he would at least initiate some actions to take full responsibility for his malicious mismanagement, even if take measures was only to get out of jail.

When the prosecution and the court should have ordered CEO Kim to compensate the Homeplus employees who had suffered for years on the streets, pleading to prevent bankruptcy and save the company, it appears that the prosecutor and judge in charge instead colluded with the management and turned a blind eye to their criminal acts.

When the request for an arrest warrant against Michael Kim was dismissed, South Koreans criticized the rampant corruption in the legal system with sarcastic jabs.

"Allegations of accounting fraud amounting to 1 trillion won constitute a felony self-evident that even the general public outside the legal profession acknowledge its severity. The arrest of Michael Kim who committed such a heinous crime, is a necessary procedure. Even if someone other than prosecutors had drafted an arrest warrant request stating the same criminal facts, it would have been approved and issued within five minutes."

(Captured from a post of Blog 참 • 바름 • 옳음) 

"How can anybody dismiss a request for an arrest warrant specifying such massive criminal facts on the grounds of "insufficient evidence"? Did Judge Jeong-ho Bahc (박정호) of the Seoul Central District Court, who reviewed the arrest warrant request and dismissed it, go through a momentary lapse of reason that he couldn't read the criminal charges from the request form? 

Or did Chief Prosecutor Bong-jin Gihm (김봉진) of the 3rd Division of the Anti-corruption Investigation Department at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office receive so many bribes that he had to stop drafting the warrant request midway and submit it in an unfinished state?" 

  

In South Korea, private equity firms have repeatedly snatched away the lives of the Korean people. There are numerous instances where the prosecution sides with large corporations and private equity firms, neglecting the victims. Since there is an apparent absence of public authority to stop this, the situation appears concerning even to foreigners like us.

Homeplus, a large discount store retail chain company with branches nationwide, was a company established by Samsung C&T in 1997. After bringing in Tesco of the UK as a joint venture partner, Samsung Tesco sold Homeplus to MBK Partners for 7.68 trillion won on September 7, 2015.

MBK Partners is a private equity firm that operates businesses by managing private equity (PE) funds. PE fund is a pooled investment vehicle. Because its source of investment funds is kept confidential, it is also referred as a channel for illicit money laundering.

Homeplus employees opposing the attempt by speculative capital to split and sell Homeplus.

The root cause of Homeplus's crisis lies in the fatal deal in which Samsung Tesco sold the company to private equity firm MBK Partners to attract speculative funds.

While the fact that a large conglomerate irresponsibly accepted speculative funds from a private equity firm and sold the company is problematic in itself, it is unlikely that Samsung C&T and Tesco UK management were unaware at the time of the sale that the owner, Michael Kim, had a poor reputation in the industry due to unethical management practices in previous investments.

Due to Samsung's irresponsible management practices, a large company responsible for the livelihoods of over 20,000 employees is facing the risk of bankruptcy. There were even rumours circulating that the government is considering acquiring and bailing out Homeplus because it is highly likely that what would follow bankruptcy has a negative impact on Korean society.

Starting in 2016, the year after Michael Kim acquired Homeplus, operating profit plummeted to the point of near collapse. This provides a clear overview of the causes and consequences of the Homeplus crisis. Reported by Kyoung-min Myoung, Newswatch reporter.
Read article: https://www.newswatch.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=74631

Operating profit plummeted starting in 2016, the year after MBK Partners CEO Michael Kim took over management. Coincidentally, the cause of this decline coincides with the time when Coupang Inc., which had been struggling with deficits due to a tarnished corporate image resulting from incompetent management and labour exploitation, successfully recovered.

Homeplus's parent company is MBK Partners, a private equity firm that has been referred to the prosecution on charges of issuing fraudulent bonds. The CEO of MBK Partners is Michael Byoung-ju Kim, a U. S. citizen, and the firm is headquartered in South Korea.

< Companies acquired with debt, profit taken, and then abandoned by MBK Partners > 

Read articles: https://www.newswatch.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=74848

As stated in the article, the reason Michael Kim's business activities are criticized as unfair and unethical is that several companies acquired by MBK Partners have completely squandered their assets and are on the verge of bankruptcy.

However, in South Korea where the media is corrupt, voices demanding social responsibilities from unethical businessmen who issued fraudulent bonds are not heard. There is an overflow of reporters representing the interests of the wealthy and the powerful.

South Korea's corrupt and incompetent media fails to thoroughly monitor political power, allowing those in power to abuse public funds without fear. In the Homeplus case as well, Korean media is instigating public opinion that Michael Kim's debt should be paid off with tax money to rescue over 20,000 employees losing their jobs.

In fact, there have been growing calls for the government to intervene and provide support for the approximately 100,000 people affected by the Homeplus crisis (including 20,000 Homeplus employees and employees of partner companies.)

Given that Michael Kim inflated his personal wealth using Homeplus's assets, the government should not stop at simply paying off Homeplus's debt with public funds, but must resolve the issue by recovering funds from the owner and rehabilitating the company.

South Korean lawmakers must enact legislation to prevent Korean companies from indiscriminately accepting speculative investments from private equity funds, and establish legal provisions to ensure that the decision-makers bear all losses incurred after receiving such speculative funds.

Reported by Yonhap News Agency

In addition, the Financial Supervisory Service must fulfill its role thoroughly as an investigative agency. To ensure that domestic companies never again suffer and go bankrupt due to private equity funds exploiting legal loopholes, such as through fraudulent bond issuance or accounting manipulation, the Financial Supervisory Service must relentlessly pursue, investigate, confiscate assets, and strictly enforce final punishment.

Isn't it shameful to be called a "country of suckers" in the private equity industry?

Again in South Korea, while a massive corporation was driven to the brink of bankruptcy and over 20,000 employees lost their jobs, the owner's wealth actually increased, becoming rich enough to invest in an amusement park of China.

This situation cannot be explained by any standard of common sense, law, or morality.

Read article:  https://www.newswatch.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=74631

It is said that the reason Michael Kim withheld wages, neglected debt repayment, and even arbitrarily suspended branch operations was not because he had no money.

Homeplus was undergoing a public bidding process following legal corporate rehabilitation proceedings in March 2025; meanwhile, Michael Kim of MBK Partners, the owner of Homeplus, expanded his presence in the Chinese culture and tourism sector by acquiring Huayi Brothers Movie World, a former theme park located in Suzhou, China, in the second half of 2025. The MBK Partners private equity fund had previously invested in China on several occasions.

In 2020, when Homeplus faced the brink of bankruptcy due to a sharp decline in sales, owner Michael Kim reportedly privatized an automobile-related company in China and acquired several marine parks the following year, in 2021. 

This is why he is accused of committing mismanagement with malicious intent. It appears that he invested Homeplus's corporate assets elsewhere and shifted the resulting financial burden and losses onto the company and its employees. Consequently, while the company is on the verge of bankruptcy and employees lost their jobs, the owner did not go bankrupt; instead, he increased his investments, earning him the mockery of a "miracle."

No wonder why Michael Kim's evasion of responsibility regarding the Homeplus crisis is being heavily criticized in Korean society.

This article provides a clear overview of the causes and consequences of Homeplus crisis. It depicts a typical scheme where profits are siphoned off overseas while the company is mismanaged to drive it into bankruptcy; it is to the point where one might wonder if the management was deliberately reckless to bring about its downfall. This article by Newswatch reporter Kyoung-min Myoung reveals many facts.

Homeplus sales performance plummeted in 2020 after being acquired by MBK Partners in 2015. In the same year, allegations were raised that the owner, Michael Kim, had purchased a luxury villa in the United States worth tens of billions of won. The buyer was identified as Michael Kim, which matched the English name of  "Michael Byungju Kim." However, Kim has reportedly denied these allegations.

As the previously posted chart shows, one can surmise the reason why the financial condition of Homeplus has only worsened ever since MBK Partners took over.

Starting in 2016, the year after Michael Kim acquired Homeplus, operating profit plummeted to the point of near collapse. This provides a clear overview of the causes and consequences of the Homeplus crisis. Reported by Kyoung-min Myoung, Newswatch reporter.
Read article: https://www.newswatch.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=74631

As mentioned earlier, it appears that public authority in South Korea is not functioning properly. Suspicions are being raised that the South Korean judiciary and prosecution are carrying out their duties by leveraging the social status and influence of forces supporting criminals from behind the scenes, rather than focusing on the crimes themselves.

Labour Minister Young-hoon Gihm (김영훈) was busy worrying about the method of performance bonus payment between Samsung Electronics management and labour at the time when Homeplus employees were being dragged away by police while staging a hunger strike demanding a meeting with the President Lee.
There appear to be too many unqualified and pathetic high-ranking public officials in South Korea.

Courts and prosecutors in all countries exist to protect citizens from the harm caused by collusion between politics and corporations. However, it appears that the courts and prosecution in South Korea are colluding with high-ranking public officials and large corporations to exploit the people and satisfy their own selfish greed.

The level of corruption among high-ranking officials is so severe that it appears as though law and order are collapsing in Korean society.

The intellectual class who ought to criticize such illegal collusion and corruption was also silenced by successive administrations through various government subsidies intended to silence them.

A South Korean editor confirmed, "Professors and scholars received massive amounts of funding flowing into their schools, obtained citizen support funds through civic groups, or collected support funds for national merit recipients by falsely claiming to be descendants of independence movement activists or the democratization movement activists, despite being unqualified. The system is such that when the names of unqualified individuals are included on the beneficiary list to receive the funds, they feel humbled and pledge their loyalty."

References (in Korean)

• Blog readcorea.info(한국어) : https://www.rebuildcorea.org/2025/11/A-Company-Lost-its-Morality.html

• Blog 참 • 바름 • 옳음 : https://rebuildcorea.blogspot.com/2026/01/7.html