Lee Sang-woon, vice chairman of Hyosung Group, has received a suspended prison sentence for tax evasion amounting to 120 billion won.
The Supreme Court's second division, led by Justice Eom Sang-pil, upheld the original ruling on September 10, sentencing Lee to two years and six months in prison, suspended for four years. The court also maintained a suspended fine and ordered 200 hours of community service.
This ruling concludes a legal battle that began 12 years and eight months ago when Lee and the late Cho Seok-rae, the group's honorary chairman, were indicted in January 2014.
Lee and Cho were accused of evading 123.7 billion won in corporate taxes through accounting fraud totaling 501 billion won over a decade starting in 2003, as well as evading over 11 billion won in capital gains tax through trading stocks under false names.
They also faced allegations of siphoning off 69.8 billion won from Hyosung's overseas subsidiaries via a shell company established in Hong Kong, and causing a loss of 23.3 billion won to the company by waiving debts owed to the shell company using funds from Hyosung's Singapore branch.
Both the first and second trials found Lee guilty of tax evasion related to capital gains tax and corporate tax through accounting manipulation, as well as violations of commercial law due to illegal dividends for the 2007 business year. However, they acquitted him of similar charges for the 2008 business year, resulting in the suspended sentence.
In December 2020, the Supreme Court ruled the 2008 corporate tax evasion charge as not guilty while affirming the guilty verdict for the 2007 commercial law violation, sending the case back to the Seoul High Court.
In December of last year, the retrial followed the Supreme Court's reasoning but imposed the same sentence as the second trial, prompting both the prosecution and Lee to appeal. Meanwhile, Cho passed away during the retrial, leading to the dismissal of the charges against him.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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