Borrowed-Name Accounts

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South Korea's financial watchdog has launched an inspection into brokerage accounts under borrowed names used by Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee. The Financial Supervisory Service set up a task force on Monday, sending inspectors to four local securities firms for a special inspection. It comes a week after the Ministry of Government Legislation clarified that the government can levy a fine against Lee for managing funds in so-called borrowed-name accounts. Lee, who has been hospitalized since suffering a heart attack in 2014, has been criticized for withdrawing money from such accounts without paying taxes or fines, even though he appears to have violated a law that bans financial transactions with borrowed-name accounts.