Samsung Securities' $105-bn 'fat finger' blunder rocking Korean markets

The fiasco has been dubbed the "ghost stock" incident by major local news media outlets

It started with a $105 billion blunder, and then it got worse.

Someone at Samsung Securities Co., one of South Korea’s largest brokerages, was trying to pay employees 1,000 won (93 U.S. cents) per share in dividends under a company compensation plan. Somehow, they gave them 1,000 Samsung Securities shares instead. In total, the company distributed 2.83 billion shares, worth - on paper - about 112.6 trillion won. That was more than 30 times the company’s market value.

The fact that the shares didn’t exist didn’t stop 16 employees from selling them. And that spurred a rout in Samsung Securities’