FTC charges HDC chief for omitting subsidiaries in regulatory filings
HDC Hyundai Development Chairman Chung Mong-gyu / Newsis
The antitrust regulator said Tuesday it has charged Chung Mong-gyu, chairman of major construction company HDC Hyundai Development, for omitting multiple subsidiaries from filings subject to interaffiliate trading regulations.
Chung is accused of submitting false information in annual filings from 2021 to 2023 that underreported the number of subsidiaries in his conglomerate, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said.
After removing duplicates, the FTC said a total of 20 companies, mostly run by his family members, were omitted from the filing, adding that their combined assets exceeded 1 trillion won ($670 million).
The FTC said that given Chung's long tenure as head of the group and ongoing family involvement in the business, it is highly likely he was aware of the false submissions.
The FTC noted that some of the firms had been excluded from interaffiliate trading regulations for as long as 19 years, avoiding rules on private profit extraction and disclosure obligations.
Under the law, large groups subject to monitoring are defined as those whose total domestic affiliate assets exceed 0.5 percent of the country's gross domestic product.