'KAL owners used planes to smuggle private goods'
By Nam Hyun-woo
Cho Hyun-min
The Korea Customs Service (KCS) is investigating allegations controversial Korean Air heiresses Cho Hyun-ah (Heather Cho) and Cho Hyun-min (Emily Cho) used the flag carrier to smuggle luxury goods, furniture and even food.
The KCS said Friday it is looking into the Cho family's credit card records over the past five years as part of its investigation.
The KCS will compare the credit card records and the family's history of paying duties. If the gap between the two is huge, the KCS may summon members of the airline's owner family. It plans to send them to the prosecution if they are found to have evaded taxes.
The move came after several Korean Air officials claimed they were instructed to send the Cho family's private goods through gates for authorized staff, which are under less thorough customs surveillance.
The Korean Air employees recently revealed the Cho family used flight KE086 traveling between New York and Incheon and the goods included luxury products, underwear, children's clothes, furniture and food products.
One of the employees said a Christian Dior dress with a $5,000 price tag was among the goods. The customs law imposes a duty on clothing worth more than $600.
The employees claimed the items were sometimes registered as goods for the airline or aircraft parts so they could be exempted from duty. Most of the goods appeared to be Hyun-ah's, they said.
One of the employees said in a media interview that there is a five- to six-person team that delivers the owner family's goods through staff gates.
Korean Air said it cannot confirm the allegations.
The Cho sisters have stirred public anger with the “nut rage” and “water rage” controversies.
Cho Hyun-ah
Hyun-min, a Korean Air marketing executive, is under police investigation over an allegation she splashed water in the face of an advertising agency employee. If the accusation is true, she could be prosecuted for assault. But Hyun-min has denied the allegation.
During a search of the Korean Air headquarters in Seoul, Thursday, police seized the mobile phones of Hyun-min and other executives in suspicion they colluded to cover up the allegation.
In 2014, Hyun-ah was indicted for violating aviation security and related laws after the “nut rage” case, in which she ordered her flight back to a gate in New York because she was upset at the way nuts were served to her.
Cho was sentenced to a year in prison, but was freed after five months when an appeals court cleared her of interfering with an air route.