The eldest son of former President Roh Tae-woo was found to have established three paper companies in an overseas tax haven, an independent online news outlet reported Monday, raising suspicion that the move was an attempt to evade paying taxes.
Roh Jae-heon, the 50-year-old son of the general-turned-president who served from 1988 to 1993, launched the three firms on the British Virgin Islands in May 2012, according to Newstapa.
The alleged finding was based on its analysis of internal documents leaked from Mossack Fonteca, a Panama law firm that is known for helping clients conceal their assets, the news media said.
Newstapa said that it has delved into the documents allegedly containing a large amount of covert transactions over the past four decades in cooperation with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
The news outlet claimed the companies allegedly launched by Roh have the typical hallmark of a paper company given that each was established by issuing just a single share worth $1.
The building where the three are located is also the address of thousands of other suspected paper companies, it added.
When the companies started operating, Roh’s declared address was in Hong Kong. He resigned as a board member from the companies in May 2013, according to Newstapa.
The National Tax Service earlier said that it plans to begin looking into his suspected tax evasion.
Roh later put out a statement rebutting the allegations.
“I set up the companies for business in China but it did not work out as planned. I did not open any bank accounts either,” He said. “I am ready to explain everything if the relevant authorities ask. They have nothing to do with tax evasion or creating a slush fund.”
The revelation came as Newstapa reported that the names of 195 presumed South Koreans were found in the leaked tax haven documents, although Roh was not included on the list.
The 2.6-terabytes of documents first obtained by a German daily newspaper have been analyzed by around 100 news organizations worldwide in the “Panama Papers” project led by the ICIJ.
Reportedly, names of politicians, their families and relatives along with global sports and movie stars have been found in the documents.
Newstapa, which joined the project as the only South Korean news outlet, said that it plans to keep reporting on each individual found on the list. (Yonhap)