Taekyoung Kwon is a key member of Lee & Ko’s Financial Compliance Team and a former Deputy Director of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). Over approximately 17 years at the FSS, he served primarily in frontline regulatory departments and was the first lawyer to be promoted to Deputy Director.

Mr. Kwon was the first lawyer in the FSS to serve as Head of the Inspection Team (covering both securities and banking), Head of the Unfair Trade Investigation Team, and Head of the Sanctions Review Division’s Review Team. Among former FSS lawyers, he is distinguished by his breadth of hands-on experience across inspections, investigations, and sanctions review, giving him a sophisticated understanding of the legal and procedural grounds for exclusion of findings and mitigation of regulatory measures in inspection and unfair trade proceedings.

He spent six years across all three departments responsible for unfair trade investigations, leading investigations and coordinating the review and adjustment of proposed enforcement measures. During this period, he uncovered and handled major cases involving fraudulent transactions disguised as new business initiatives, including capital-less M&A schemes, as well as market manipulation. He reviewed complex legal issues arising in numerous individual cases and provided materials for, and directly participated in, the enactment and amendment of key regulatory guidelines. In recognition of his performance, he received the Governor’s Commendation as Best Investigator in the unfair trade division.

In addition, he served as Inspection Team Leader in the Financial Investment Inspection Bureau, the Bank Compliance Inspection Bureau, and the Asset Management Inspection Bureau, where he directed inspections and review of enforcement measures involving securities firms, banks, and asset management companies. His work encompassed bond transactions by securities companies, improper business conduct, non-performing loans of banks, mis-selling, anti-money laundering matters, and parking transactions and other unsound practices by asset management companies and securities firms.

During his tenure in the Legal Affairs Department, he advised on regulatory matters affecting banks, financial holding companies, and non-bank financial institutions. In the Sanctions Review Bureau, he served for two years as Head of the Financial Investment Team, overseeing the review and adjustment of proposed enforcement measures against financial investment companies, including those involving improper business conduct by securities firms and electronic financial incidents, and particularly sanctions arising from inspections related to mis-selling of private equity funds by securities and asset management companies.

Drawing on this comprehensive experience in inspections of banks, securities firms, and asset management companies, as well as capital markets unfair trade investigations, Mr. Kwon advises clients on the full spectrum of financial regulatory matters, including financial institution inspections, investigations and enforcement actions concerning unfair trading in equities and virtual assets, and licensing and other regulatory approvals. In inspection matters, he has secured the exclusion of alleged violations or meaningful mitigation of sanctions at the inspection report and prior notice stages. In unfair trade investigations, he has achieved dismissals without charges and, particularly in short-selling cases, cautionary dispositions or substantial reductions in administrative penalties.