Part I The Lone Star Investigation — A Thirty-Three-Year-Old Prosecutor's Night

1 Late one night in 2006, a light remained on the seventh floor of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in Seocho-dong. The city’s bright lights shimmered against the window, but the young man inside had no time to look at them. He was thirty-three. His desk was buried under mountains of paper. Empty paper cups of cold instant coffee filled his trash can. Han Dong-hoon spent his nights fighting with numbers and a highlighter.

2 He was digging into Lone Star. This private equity fund from Texas had bought Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) for 1.3 trillion won in 2003. The country was still healing from the Asian financial crisis. The government needed to sell the struggling bank quickly, and Lone Star saw an opening.

3 The trouble started later. When Lone Star merged KEB with its credit card unit, they wanted to keep the costs low. They spread a rumor that they would reduce the bank’s capital. When investors hear about capital reduction, they get scared. They sold their shares, and the price crashed. Lone Star then bought the credit card company at a bargain.

4 Everyone suspected what was happening. Proving it was a different matter. Lone Star had a world-class legal team. Their logic seemed unbreakable. The documents from financial regulators showed suspicious signs, but they lacked the proof needed for a courtroom. They claimed it was a business decision and that they simply changed their minds about the capital reduction later.

5 Han Dong-hoon had just finished an investigation into Hyundai Motor Group. He was ready to go back to his home office. Instead, his bosses gave him another job. He was sent into the Lone Star case with his colleague Lee Dong-yeol. He later said he felt hopeless when he first saw the files. He had a strong feeling, but he had no evidence.

6 He did not back down. He slept at the office five days a week. He would nap on a sofa under a layer of newspapers and wake up at dawn to search the records again. No one forced him to do this. He chose this path.

7 His big gamble was a raid on Citigroup, which was advising Lone Star. At the time, forcing a search on a foreign investment bank was seen as a mistake. Senior officials worried about diplomatic friction. They feared international embarrassment. Han persuaded the court. He got the warrant.

8 In the early hours of that morning, he found the smoking gun inside thousands of emails. At the exact moment Lone Star was telling the public they might reduce capital, their staff were writing something else to each other. "Capital reduction is off the table," one email said.

9 They were lying to the market to create fear while they had already dropped the plan internally. It was stock manipulation. Han remembers that moment clearly. He wanted to show justice to those who looked down on his country.

10 Using this evidence, he brought in foreign executives. He questioned them with logic until they confessed. The court rejected the arrest warrant for the head of Lone Star Korea four times. He worked through the tension between the court and the prosecutors. He worked through the pressure coming from outside.

11 The legal battle lasted ten years. Even when Han was sent away to a lower position in Busan, he traveled to Seoul twice a week for the trials. This was not just a job to him. It was a matter of national pride. In 2011, the Supreme Court finally found Lone Star guilty of stock manipulation. The executive was sent to prison for three years.

12 This ruling was more than a punishment for one man. The Korean court officially labeled Lone Star as a corrupt force. No one knew then that this single victory would save the country from a 6 trillion won disaster twenty years later.

Part II The Lone Star ISDS — A Gamble to Protect the National Interest

1 In November 2012, Lone Star sued the Korean government. They went to a center under the World Bank. They asked for $4.6 billion. At the time, that was over 6 trillion won. It was the largest international lawsuit in the history of the country.

2 To understand that amount, think of this: 6 trillion won could provide free lunch for every elementary student in the country for ten years. It could build an entire new subway line in Seoul.

3 Lone Star argued that they tried to sell KEB to Hana Financial in 2012, but the Korean government delayed the approval because of public opinion. They claimed they lost a fortune because of this delay. On the surface, it sounded like a real argument. They had already made a huge profit, and now they wanted trillions more.

4 Government officials were panicked. A sense of defeat spread through the halls of power. Some suggested they should just settle and pay a smaller amount.

5 But the key to the fight already existed. It was that criminal conviction Han Dong-hoon had secured in 2011. There is a rule in international law called the Clean Hands Doctrine. It means those with "dirty hands" cannot ask for the law’s protection. Lone Star had committed a crime. The Korean government could argue that the delay was not a random act of interference, but a legal response to a criminal investigation.

6 That one line in an email from twenty years ago became the shield for the country’s money. Han carried the records of this case like a personal burden throughout his career. Every time he moved houses, he took a truckload of photocopies with him. Most of the officials who knew the case had retired. He was one of the few who still knew every detail from start to finish.

7 In August 2022, the first result came in. The tribunal rejected most of Lone Star’s claim. However, they ordered Korea to pay about $216 million. Most of the judges recognized the stock manipulation but thought the government was partly responsible for the delay. One judge disagreed entirely. That judge said Korea should pay zero because of Lone Star’s crimes.

8 This dissenting opinion proved that Han’s work was working even on the global stage.

9 The People Who Stood in the Way During this time, the people blocking Han were not from Lone Star. They were politicians from his own country. Yang Kyung-sook, a lawmaker, called him a traitor for pursuing an appeal with low odds of winning. A famous broadcaster, Kim Ou-joon, asked if Han would pay the interest if they lost. Another lawmaker attacked the original investigation as a failure.

10 One lawyer even pressured the government to fire their legal team. Lee Jun-seok, a party leader, predicted in 2024 that the government would lose even more money because of the lawsuit. The attacks came from every side. They were like bullets fired from behind. While the Justice Minister was fighting a global fund, his own countrymen were pulling the trigger.

11 Han's Decision Han Dong-hoon had a different view. He believed that even if the chance of winning was not 100 percent, the government had to work until it was. He could not stand by while a criminal took the people’s money.

12 He told his team that he would take the blame if things went wrong. He told them not to worry about protecting him, but that he would protect them. Officials usually fear taking responsibility for failure. Han took that fear upon himself.

13 He refused to fire the legal team. He knew they were the only ones who had beaten Lone Star before. He followed the rule that you do not change generals in the middle of a war. In 2023, he created a new International Legal Affairs Bureau. He turned a small office into a major department with more experts. This became the fortress for Korea’s defense in many international disputes.

14 In August of that year, he stood before reporters. He called the money "blood tax." He said the government would fight to cancel the ruling. He said they had a chance to win. Many people doubted him. They called it a hopeless fight. But he was holding the hammer he had built over twenty years.

15 Total Victory On November 18, 2025, the final decision arrived. The committee canceled the order for the Korean government to pay Lone Star. The payment was set to zero.

16 The $4.6 billion that Lone Star first asked for was gone. Korea even got back about 7.2 billion won in legal costs. It was a reversal rarely seen in international law. Han knew they had won when he saw the Prime Minister prepare to announce the result. If they had lost, the Prime Minister would not have been the one to speak.

17 The People Taking Credit After the result, Prime Minister Kim Min-seok called it a great success for the new government. Han could only laugh. The final legal steps had happened before the current government even took office. He compared it to people who spend ninety minutes shouting at the players, then run onto the field to grab the trophy after the whistle blows.

18 The people who had opposed the appeal went silent or changed their words. The lawyer who tried to fire the legal team now holds a high position in the presidential office. It was a strange sight.

19 Interestingly, Jung Sung-ho, the current Justice Minister and a political rival of Han, praised the decision. He called it a brave choice based on conviction. This comment made the previous attacks from other politicians look even smaller. Han remained calm. He said he simply did his job because the money belonged to the people.

Part III The Elliott ISDS — Piercing the Needle's Eye

1 Before the Lone Star fight ended, another file sat on Han’s desk. Elliott Management, an American fund known for aggressive lawsuits against governments, was targeting South Korea.

2 The Roots of the Case In 2015, the Samsung Group announced a merger between Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T. It was meant to help Lee Jae-yong take control of the company. Many said the deal was unfair to Samsung C&T shareholders. Elliott owned about 7 percent of the company and fought the merger. They lost when the National Pension Service (NPS) voted in favor of the deal.

3 Later, a huge scandal broke. It turned out the government had pressured the NPS to vote for the merger. People were sent to prison. Elliott used this to sue the Korean government in 2018. They asked for about $770 million.

4 The Ruling In June 2023, a tribunal ordered Korea to pay Elliott about 160 billion won, including interest. The judges decided that the NPS was a part of the state, so the government was responsible for its vote.

5 Han’s Second Move Han Dong-hoon was the Justice Minister when this ruling came out. Within a month, he announced a lawsuit to cancel it. He argued that the NPS is not a state agency. He said the judges had made a fundamental mistake about their jurisdiction.

6 This was a huge risk. The success rate for these types of lawsuits was only about 3 percent. He was betting on a 97 percent chance of failure. He told the public he would hire the best lawyers and save every penny of the people's money. He noted that he knew the case better than anyone because he had investigated it as a prosecutor.

7 The Battle in London The case went through three stages in the English courts. At first, they lost. In August 2024, a court dismissed the case. The government appealed. In July 2025, a higher court reversed that decision. They said the government’s arguments were valid and sent the case back for a full review.

8 On February 23, 2026, the London High Court finally ruled in favor of Korea. The court agreed with Han’s logic. They said the NPS has its own legal identity and is not a core part of the state like the military. The logic Han had set in 2023 was finally accepted.

9 After Lone Star, Now Elliott When the news of the victory arrived, Han thanked the officials who worked with him. He said it was an honor to protect the people’s money. He also criticized those who had called for him to be punished for even trying to fight the case. He asked them to reflect on their actions instead of trying to take credit for the win.

10 The Elliott case is not completely over because it goes back to a new tribunal, but the core has changed. Han's decisions in both the Lone Star and Elliott cases saved the country hundreds of billions of won. He beat the odds twice.

11 A magazine named Han the Person of the Year for 2025. They said he made a series of choices that many called reckless, but he never bent. Han said in an interview that he could handle the responsibility as long as his decisions were not for himself. He said that courage is not the absence of fear, but acting even when you feel it.

12 In 2003, there was a thirty-three-year-old prosecutor. For over twenty years, he carried the weight of these cases with him. He fought against a 97 percent chance of failure and against the insults of his own countrymen. In the end, he won. Twice. This story shows how one person’s skill and will can change a nation's path. When everyone else said to give up, he said no. Justice is not something that just happens. It is kept alive by the hard work and brave choices of people like him.



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