Ghost the Musical and financial fraud

The tickets of “Ghost the Musical” starring idol stars including Joo Won and IVY have been all sold out. The musical combines the storyline of the movie “Ghost” starring Patrick Swayze and the fantastic sets using LED displays and magic. The producer is Seensee Company. The theater at D-Cube City, which transformed the Sindorim area from a briquette factory to a cultural center, is also worth visiting.

Sam was an investment banker on Wall Street. He was killed by his best friend one day because of a financial fraud. Movies such as “Rogue Trader” and “Shawshank Redemption” deal with financial frauds. As money often involves greed and temptations, it is a good motif for a dramatic story. Financial frauds are not rare in reality. A trader’s fraudulent investment caused the bankruptcy of Barings Bank in the U.K. in 1995, and a 31-year-old employee incurred a record loss of 7.2 billion dollar to Societe Generale in 2008.

Corruption scandals tainted the Korean financial industry this year, too. A few employees at Kookmin Bank forged housing bonds to create a slush fund of nine billion won (8.54 million U.S. dollars). Some banks did not return loan interests worth 5.5 billion won (5.2 million dollars) to clients. The head and deputy head of a bank’s Tokyo Branch were arrested for allegedly extending loans illegally in return for rebates. A total number of 424 bank employees have been punished by the authorities for embezzlement and illegal lending, and is the largest number since 1997. Financial institutions introduced mandatory vacations and employee rotations to strengthen their internal control. It is doubtful whether they will work.

Chinese say “Gong Xi Fa Chai (meaning make lots of money)” as New Year`s greetings. “Hope you to be rich!” was quite popular once in Korea but Koreans also say other greetings such as “Bless you!” or “Be healthy!” Koreans tend to be a little reserved about talking about money explicitly but Chinese do not seem to care about it. If you do not want to go to prison, you need to make money in an honest and right way. The financial fraudster who killed his friend in Ghost the Musical ended up dying in misery.

Editorial Writer Shin Yeon-soo (ysshin@donga.com)