Financial authorities said that executives of large cram schools, hospitals and financial firms have reaped profits of around 23 billion won through a large-scale market manipulation scheme that has been ongoing since early last year.

The Financial Services Commission, Financial Supervisory Service and Korea Exchange said Tuesday that the group had falsely inflated the prices of at least 100 billion won worth of low-volume shares by purchasing them above market price or in bulk and then immediately canceling the orders.

The group allegedly conducted trades through dozens of accounts and manipulated their IP addresses to avoid detection. 

The investigation found that including the unrealized gain, the group netted approximately 40 billion won.

The alleged scheme is the first case the three authorities have uncovered since announcing a crackdown on stock manipulation in July.

The investigators raided locations linked to the allegations and froze the suspects' accounts and payments.