이 기사는 2021년 12월 03일 08:09 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

US investors in funds managed by Direct Lending Investments (DLI) have filed a class action suit in a California court against six South Korean financial services firms, arguing that their “unjust enrichment” aggravated investor losses.

The lawsuit, worth more than $198 million, named Kookmin Bank, Shinhan Bank, Korea Securities Finance Corp, Golden Bridge Asset Management, JB Asset Management and Korea Alternative Investment Asset Management as defendants. They are currently working on understanding the facts regarding the case.

The class action is seeking recovery of investor losses related to the collapse of DLI. The US investment firm had managed funds investing in companies that made loans to small businesses and retailers.

Golden Bridge Asset Management, JB Asset Management and Korea Alternative Investment Asset Management managed funds investing in DLI’s private equity lending funds, while Kookmin Bank, Shinhan Bank and Korea Securities Finance Corp were trustees of those funds.

The plaintiffs are arguing that the defendants earned unjust fees in the process of investing in DLI’s funds, ultimately resulting in increased investor losses.

The filing of the class action suit comes after a number of South Korean investors were hit by the collapse of local asset manager Discovery Asset Management last year, which had also run DLI-linked funds. In 2019, DLI was sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for misrepresenting performance and was later put into receivership.

The six firms appear embarrassed by the lawsuit. They refuted that their DLI-linked funds were already liquidated in 2018, even before the DLI case began in the US. They are expected to team up to jointly respond to the suit. (Reporting by Si-mok Kim and Jin-hyun Kim)