Reporting from Seoul — He was a self-styled Internet prophet, an economic pundit who went by the name of Minerva, after the Roman goddess of wisdom.
In regular weblogs posted last year that drew a cult-like following, Minerva pontificated on South Korea's spiraling economy, forecasting dire scenarios many domestic investors took to heart.
He was a genius, they claimed, a mysterious inside trader with a Drudge-like acumen for scoops that uncannily predicted the unfolding global economic crisis.
He foretold the collapse of Lehman Bros., the U.S. investment bank, and anticipated the resulting plunge of the South Korea currency, the won, all the while castigating policymakers for their blunders.
But prosecutors say Minerva crossed the line.
In a Dec. 29 posting, the online commentator wrote that the South Korean government had ordered financial institutions to stop buying dollars in order to curb the won's fall against the greenback.
The posting devastated the local foreign exchange market, forcing the nation's financial authority to spend $2 billion of its reserves as the demand for dollars surged wildly, prosecutors claim.
This month, investigators arrested a 30-year-old man who they say has admitted to being Minerva. They have criminally charged him with spreading false rumors on the Internet that damaged the government's reputation in the world financial market.
Today, a handcuffed Park Dae-sung appeared in Seoul's Central District Court, dressed in a light-gray jail jumpsuit, his hair unruly, as his attorneys made a motion to dismiss the charges.
The arrest has pierced the Minerva mystique. Park has allegedly told authorities that he has never invested in stocks nor gained financially from his postings.
Park, who is unemployed, says he briefly attended community college and never believed his writings would jeopardize his nation's economy.
"I'm not a serial killer," he reportedly told his lawyers before the proceeding. "Frankly, I'm scared. It's scary that I should talk with my hands handcuffed."
The Minerva case has triggered a fierce debate here over freedom of expression in South Korea. Park's supporters insist he was merely a blogger expressing his opinions and that the charges against him jeopardize the integrity of the nation's Internet culture.
Prosecutors counter that the government needs to bring more accountability to Internet postings.
