Lotte Insurance and Meritz Securities are locked in a heated tug-of-war over the brokerage's sale of $160 million (210 billion won) in risky fund products which incurred huge losses. The controversial fund was established in December 2018. The Lotte affiliate invested $50 million in the fund about two months later. But with Blackstone - the world's leading alternative asset manager which has a close link to the fund - declaring default on the product in 2020, Lotte Insurance ended up reporting losses in all of the invested capital in only about two and a half years.