Ex-Hanjin Shipping chairwoman investigated over insider trading

The former chairwoman of bankrupt Hanjin Shipping is under investigation for alleged insider trading.

South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service confirmed to the BBC that the investigation into Choi Eun Young was handed to prosecutors on 9 May.

She has come under scrutiny after it was revealed she sold all her shares in the firm days before it filed for a debt restructuring programme in April.

Hanjin's bankruptcy is the largest ever to hit the shipping industry.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Ms Choi and her two daughters sold shares worth 3bn won ($2.7m, £2.1m) in April.

She left the company in 2014.

The sale prompted regulators to launch an investigation and hand the case over to a prosecutors' office.

The company's collapse has left many of its ships stranded at sea unable to dock in ports for days and weeks.

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Industry turmoil

Hanjin Shipping has since been granted legal protection preventing its ships from seizure in various ports including South Korea, the United States and Japan.

But dozens of other ships are anchored off ports while the company tries to secure funds to unload cargo.

The troubled firm is saddled with debts of more than $5bn.

The company is the world's seventh-largest container line and has been unprofitable for four of the past five years.

The global economic downturn in recent years has affected profits across the cargo shipping industry.