Chun's son on revelation list
Former President Chun Doo-hwan, left, and his son Jae-kook
By Kim Tae-jong
An activist group of journalists accused a son of former President Chun Doo-hwan of setting up a paper company in an offshore tax haven.
Now focus is shifting on to whether the bogus firm has served as a conduit for the former head of state to hide away the money he is suspected of having amassed during his reign, and now denies ever existed.
The fourth revelation by Newstapa, run by the Korea Center for Investigative Journalism (KCIJ), said Chun Jae-kook established a paper company in the British Virgin Islands in 2004.
The organization is working with the U.S.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and says it has a list with 245 names on it.
The previous three revelations had 17 figures, including businessmen, an actress and a college president having paper firms in tax havens..
Newstapa said the former president’s son was registered as the sole director of Blue Adonis on Aug. 13, 2004.
The firm was registered as having $50,000 in equity capital but issued only one share worth $1, a typical scam for a paper company.
“Given the address in documents related to Blue Adonis, we came to the conclusion that Chun, who set up the company, was the first son of the former president,” Kim Yong-jin, the KCIJ chief director, said during a news conference at the Press Center in Seoul.
Chun has not been available for interview, although they have tried to contact him, Kim added.
The online news outlet also alleged that Chun hurriedly set up the ghost firm to transfer money, thought to be part of the hundreds of billions of won the former president amassed during his seven-year term in the 1980s.
The KCIJ argued that 2004 was when the prosecution was investigating the former president’s second-eldest son Jae-yong on tax evasion charges and illegal financial transactions overseas to hide the money.
"In emails between the bank and Chun’s law firm, the latter said that its client was very unhappy about a delay, showing he was in a hurry to make some sort of urgent transaction," Kim said.
Chun’s father took office in a coup following the assassination of former President Park Chung-hee in 1979, and was convicted of bribery and treason in 1997. The court then ordered Chun to pay a 220 billion won fine, but he has only paid 31 billion won.
The KCIJ said it will announce more names of people who set up paper companies in major tax havens after reviewing the facts related to them.
Already named are businessmen and their family members such as Lee Soo-young, chairman and CEO of OCI, a major chemical firm; Lee’s wife; the wife of former Korean Air Vice Chairman Cho Joong-geon; Choi Eun-young, Hanjin Shipping chairwoman; and Cho Yong-min, a former CEO of Hanjin Shipping.