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[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Paul Lee] Kakao Pay, a subsidiary of Kakao, was sent to the prosecution after being suspected of recruiting merchants and providing rebates.
According to the police and the information technology (IT) industry on the 17th, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's anti-corruption and public crime investigation team sent a person in charge of franchise contracts between Kakao Pay and Nice Information and Communication to the prosecution the previous day. The move comes after circumstantial evidence emerged that Nice Information and Communication paid for Kakao Pay's offline franchise recruitment instead.
The police charged Kakao Pay with violating the Specialized Credit Finance Business Act, believing that Nice Information and Communication paid part of the cost of recruiting merchants. In July, the company also raided Kakao Pay's headquarters in Bundang-gu, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, and the office of Nice Information and Communication in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, to secure data on the recruitment and management of payment service franchisees.
Kakao Pay also commissioned the recruitment of franchisees to Nice Information and Communication, a van company. Nice Information and Communication entrusted it back to the agency, when suspicions arose over the agency's payment of recruitment agency fees.
Alphabiz Reporter Paul Lee(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
