Billionaire Kim Barred From Leaving Korea Amid Bond Probe (1)

Billionaire Michael ByungJu Kim has been barred from leaving South Korea as part of a probe by local prosecutors into a bond sale by one of the private equity investor’s portfolio companies.

The restriction was confirmed by a spokesperson for Kim’s firm, MBK Partners Ltd., after Yonhap News reported that prosecutors had on May 17 executed a search and seizure warrant on Kim and obtained his mobile phone. Yonhap cited unidentified sources in the legal industry.

The travel ban is a major escalation in the case for Kim, a Korean-born, US-educated financier, who leads South Korea’s biggest private equity ...