Mr. Pizza founder bled franchisees dry — then a death exposed it

Mr. Pizza was founded in the 1990s by Jung Woo-hyun and grew into one of Korea's largest pizza chains, with over 300 stores in Korea and 140 in China at its peak. The company went public on KOSDAQ and expanded rapidly through a franchise model that gave Jung near-total control over both the brand and its supply chain.

An investigation after Jung's arrest revealed systematic fraud. He forced franchisees to buy cheese from relatives' companies at inflated prices, costing them ₩5.7B extra. He paid ₩2.9B in ghost salaries to phantom employees. He stole ₩570M from the joint advertising fund. The total damage was ₩15B — ₩9.17B directly misappropriated plus ₩6.46B in losses inflicted on franchisees.

The scandal broke in March 2017 when an Incheon franchisee died following the closure of his store. Jung was arrested in July 2017. MP Group was delisted from KOSDAQ in December 2018. In November 2020, a Pelicana Chicken-backed PE fund acquired a controlling stake for approximately ₩20B — a fraction of the company's former value.