LG Group HQ raided over alleged tax evasion

By Park Si-soo

Koo Bon-moo

Prosecutors searched the LG Group’s finance team office in Seoul on Wednesday in an investigation of alleged tax evasion involving “family members of the group’s chairman.”

They secured tax and accounting documents and related computer files needed for the investigation, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office in charge of the operation said.

A prosecutor familiar with the case said the chairman’s family is suspected of having dodged taxes worth “tens of billions of won” in the process of transferring the family’s shares in LG affiliates to others. He did not give further details.

The prosecutor said the office started the investigation after receiving information from the National Tax Service last month.

He said LG Group Chairman Koo Bon-moo and his younger brother Koo Bon-neung, chairman of Heesung Electronics, are “not directly involved in the case.” He said the chairman’s residence was not searched.

An LG spokesman said the raid was "something unexpected" and the company will "fully cooperate with the investigation."

He said the company is trying to determine "the reasons and targets of the investigation."