[News Today] CJ CHAIR’S SHADY SWISS ACCOUNTS

[LEAD]
Two months ago, KBS revealed that the National Tax Service launched a special probe into CJ Group. Now, it's confirmed that this investigation has uncovered a Swiss bank account tied to Chairman Lee Jay-hyun, amid multiple tax evasion allegations.

[REPORT]
A special tax probe began on CJ Group last November.

The probe is carried out by the inspection unit 4 at the National Tax Service's Seoul Regional Office, a team renowned for efficiently getting results.

High intensity audits are ongoing into the conglomerate's various subsidiaries including its flagship arm CJ CheilJedang.

KBS has confirmed that CJ Group chairman Lee Jay-hyun is also subject to tax evasion charges.

The National Tax Service is particularly focused on three accounts opened at Swiss bank UBS.

All three were under the joint name of Lee and his late mother Sohn Bok-nam. They were opened prior to 2013 and closed in late 2016.

Several deposits and withdrawals were made during the three years. When the balance was high, it once reached the 26 billion won range, or nearly 18 million dollars, according to the NTS.

Under the tax code at that time, an overseas account with a balance of more than one billion won had to be reported to the NTS.

However, no report was made for the three accounts.

An Soo-nam / Tax accountant
Regulations are bolstered to prevent offshore tax evasion, illegal transactions and boost transparency of tax resources. This includes a dual measure of max 20% fine alongside criminal penalty.

Such undeclaration constitutes fraud or other irregularity, which amounts to tax evasion.

There's also a reason why the NTS believes this may not be an honest mistake.

Previously, chairman Lee was caught owning stocks of paper companies traced to the tax haven Virgin Islands.

He then reported his overseas assets to the NTS from 2013. At the time, he was slapped with fines of some ten billion won, or 6.8 million dollars.

In response, CJ Group said that on a corporate level, it cannot identify the Swiss accounts reported by KBS and that as a company, it has not managed unreported overseas accounts since the 2013 slush fund scandal.