A joint team that launched in July to root out stock manipulation raided the headquarters of The Korea Economic Daily Thursday.

KBS has learned that the investigators detected circumstances implicating five reporters affiliated with the daily in relation to the alleged acquisition of inside information, purchase of specific stocks, publication of favorable articles to help prices increase, and sales for fraudulent gains.

Those convicted of engaging in such improprieties aimed at obtaining unjust profits could face a minimum of one year in prison under the Capital Markets Act.

The joint team suspects that the reporters wrote hundreds of news articles to be used in the alleged act, reaping tens of billions of won in illegal gains.

Earlier, the special judicial police under the Financial Supervisory Service(FSS) referred to the prosecution a former reporter and an investor on charges of making unlawful profit exceeding ten billion won, or around six-point-eight million U.S. dollars with stock-related news articles.