Hyosung Vice Chairman Lee Sang-woon Receives Suspended Sentence 13 Years After Indictment for KRW 100 Billion Tax Evasion

Hyosung Group Vice Chairman Lee Sang-woon, who was indicted on charges of corporate corruption including evading over 100 billion won in taxes, has had his prison sentence with probation finalized by the Supreme Court following a final appeal.

On the 10th, Division 2 of the Supreme Court (Presiding Justice Um Sang-pil) finalized the lower court's ruling, which sentenced Vice Chairman Lee—who was brought to trial on charges including tax evasion under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Crimes—to two and a half years in prison suspended for four years, and deferred the sentencing of a fine.

This final ruling comes 12 years and 8 months after prosecutors indicted Vice Chairman Lee in January 2014 alongside the late Honorary Chairman Cho Suck-rae.

They were accused of evading 123.7 billion won in corporate tax through 501 billion won in window dressing (accounting fraud) over a span of 10 years starting in 2003, as well as evading approximately 11 billion won in capital gains tax by trading hundreds of billions of won worth of stocks under borrowed names.

They were also charged with embezzling 68.9 billion won in funds from Hyosung's overseas subsidiary via a Hong Kong paper company, and inflicting 23.3 billion won in losses on the company by having Hyosung's Singapore subsidiary waive the debt of a loan owed by the Hong Kong paper company.

The appellate court found Vice Chairman Lee guilty of evading capital gains and other taxes related to domestic borrowed-name stocks, evading corporate tax through manipulated accounting books, and violating the Commercial Act due to illegal dividends for the 2007 business year, sentencing him to two and a half years in prison suspended for four years.

In December 2020, the Supreme Court reversed and remanded the case, overturning the acquittal on the charge of evading corporate tax for the 2008 business year and upholding the conviction for the Commercial Act violation related to the 2007 business year.

In December of last year, the remand appeals court followed the Supreme Court's ruling while imposing the same sentence as the pre-remand appellate court.

A ruling to dismiss the indictment was issued regarding the late Honorary Chairman Cho, who passed away during the remand appeal trial.

Both the prosecution and Vice Chairman Lee filed final appeals, but the Supreme Court finalized the sentence, stating that the remand appeals court committed no errors in misinterpreting legal principles.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.