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A poster for the movie "Boiler Room." Prosecutors said Kim Kyung-joon who is at the center of BBK scam copycatted the movie's story.
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Prosecutors say the chief suspect in the so-called BBK scandal that centers on several dubious investment firms copied his operation straight from the Hollywood movie ¡°Boiler Room¡±, about a fraudulent financial firm. Chief Prosecutor Kim Hong-il of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office, announcing the indictment of Kim Kyung-joon for embezzlement and stock manipulation on Wednesday, said investigators ¡°confiscated a DVD of the movie ¡®Boiler Room¡¯ from the former president¡¯s desk in the Optional Ventures office. The movie¡¯s story is nearly identical to the scam.¡± Kim set up Optional Ventures when BBK folded due to forged investment reports. An official with the special investigative unit said, ¡°Although Kim denies any relation between the scandal and the movie, the movie will help you better understand the scandal.¡±
The paper company used to swindle people out of their savings in the movie is called Med Patent Technologies ? a name Kim gave to a bogus company he set up in the process of stock manipulation. And Kim used the name of one of the stars of the movie, Giovanni Ribisi, for a fictional representative of the bogus company. Prosecutors believe Kim also copied the ingenious stock manipulations in the movie that make it look to gullible small investors as if the shares are performing miraculously well. In the movie, Seth Davis, played by Ribisi, gets rich by manipulating stock prices to make his investors paper millionaires overnight before the stock plummets to nothing. Kim himself embezzled a whopping W39 billion (US$1=W923) in less than a year from investors in the scam. Seth in the movie buys a big house and five luxury cars including a Ferrari and Porsche with his ill-gotten gains. Kim purchased two houses in Beverly Hills and a Mercedes. In ¡°Boiler Room¡±, Seth slips away when FBI agents raid his office -- much as Kim disappeared from Korea.
Meanwhile, when asked what the mysterious abbreviation BBK means, Kim during the investigation answered ¡°Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait¡±, insinuating involvement by Grand National Party presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak, who has good connections in the Middle East. But prosecutors concluded it is actually a combination of the initials of Kim, his wife Lee Bo-ra and Bobby Oh, who are promoters of the company.
¡°Boiler Room¡± was released in the U.S. on Feb. 18 in 2000 and in Korea in October. The movie won the Jury Special Prize at Deauville Film Festival. It is directed by Ben Younger and stars Giovanni Ribish, Vin Diesel, Ben Affleck and Nia Long.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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