The scandal surrounding a 1.5 trillion won ($1.3bn; �760m) accounting fraud at South Korean trading firm SK Global has spread to its creditors, who have come under investigation themselves. The two biggest lenders, Hana Bank and Kookmin Bank, both insist they have done nothing wrong.
But the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), Korea's top financial regulator, said on Thursday that it had found "irregularities" in creditor statements connected to their dealings with SK Global, whose parent is Korea's number four conglomerate, SK Corp.
"We found some lenders had reported some financial transactions with SK Global to outside audit firms without thorough confirmation," the head of FSS's audit team told Reuters.
SK's debts are 4.4 trillion won ($3.7bn; �2.2bn) bigger than its assets, and its local creditors are currently trying to negotiate the terms of the bailout with the foreign banks and institutions who also hold some of SK's debts.
Its chairman is appealing a three-year jail sentence.
Stand-off
But the negotiations are proving sticky, since the foreign creditors believe they are being short-changed.
The offer on the table would give have SK Global paying the foreign creditors up to 40% of the face value of their debts, while the Korean institutions swap up to 47% of their debts for shares.
But the foreign creditors - holding about $1bn of SK's total $7.5bn debt, and led by Standard Chartered China - are holding out for a bigger slice of the pie.
Standard Chartered told Korea's Yonhap news agency that the local auditor, Samil Accounting, had failed to explain exactly how the insolvency of SK had come about.
Hana, the leading creditor, is playing tough and threatening to liquidate SK Global unless an agreement is reached by 18 July.
In the meantime, credit rating agency Standard & Poor's is warning that the SK scandal proves that despite recent improvements, corporate governance in South Korea still falls short of international standards.
Opaque owndership structures and the attitudes of controlling shareholders still make life difficult for other stockholders, said Calvin Wong, S&P's managing director of governance services.
"As evidenced by the recent events within SK Group in Korea, it is clear that there is an aspect of shareholders' rights that needs to be further addressed," he said.
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As evidenced by the recent events within SK Group in Korea, it is clear that there is an aspect of shareholders' rights that needs to be further addressed 
