Head of Hanjin Shipping found to run shell company in tax haven

The head of Hanjin Shipping Holdings Co., South Korea's leading shipping and logistics company affiliated with Korean Air Lines, has been found to be among a few others who own a shell company in a tax haven country, an independent online media organization said Monday, as it released its second list of high-profile Korean businessmen suspected of tax evasion through their bogus overseas accounts.
The Korea Center for Investigative Journalism (KCIJ), a non-profit organization set up by former journalists, released seven names of incumbent and former executives of family-owned conglomerates, known here as chaebol, in an apparent bid to shed light on their overseas financial accounts that may have been used to hide slush funds and avoid taxes.
The list, disclosed via the KCIJ's Web site, included Choi Eun-young, the chairwoman of the country's leading shipping giant Hanjin Shipping Holdings Co., and its former chief executive Cho Yong-min.
The two have established a paper company named Wide Gate Group Ltd. in the British Virgin Islands in October 2008 and have since remained the largest stakeholders.
A trust company in the Cook Islands was also set up in 1996 by a former executive of an affiliate of Hanwha Group, the 10th-largest chaebol in Korea, the document said.
The Monday release came days after the KCIJ exposed last Wednesday its first list of high-profile Korean businessmen and their families suspected of running hidden accounts through the ghost companies as safe deposit boxes to stash away off-the-book funds or evade taxes.
Source: Yonhap