Executives of South Korean retail giant Homeplus have been banned from leaving the country due to their suspected involvement in the recent leaking of their clients’ personal information, investigators said Friday.

The joint investigative team on crimes related to personal information, headed by Seoul prosecutor Lee Jung-soo, raided the headquarters of Homeplus on Wednesday and found evidence linking the company CEO Do Sung-hwan and other high-ranking executives to the information leak in July.

According to investigators, former Homeplus Group chairman Lee Seung-han may have also been involved.

Public furor erupted in July after it was revealed that workers at the Homeplus insurance brokerage division had rigged the raffles to illegally obtain the prizes. Four people, including two officials from the division, had already been indicted for the cited charges.

The officials are also suspected of selling the personal information of customers who participated in the raffles to local insurance companies.

The prosecution suspects that the leak was not merely an act by rogue employees, but an executive decision of which the CEO was well aware and may have even approved. According to prosecutors, workers at Homeplus submitted a report saying they would make 4 billion won ($3.82 million) this year by selling the private information of clients.

An investigative team, consisting of officials from various branches of the government and the private sector, plans to summon the executives for questioning as soon as they have finished processing the evidence procured during Wednesday’s raid.

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)