Deutsch Motors Group Chairman Kwon Oh-soo and his wife have been indicted on charges of issuing tens of billions of won in false tax invoices and evading hundreds of millions of won in taxes.

The Tax Crime Investigation Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office (led by Senior Prosecutor Yong Tae-ho) indicted Chairman Kwon and his spouse without detention on the 22nd on charges including violations of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Crimes regarding the issuance of false tax invoices.

Chairman Kwon and his wife are accused of channeling various showroom and interior construction projects commissioned by the group to proxy-established companies, issuing false tax invoices, and evading gift and comprehensive income taxes.

Investigations revealed that they established three companies, including two shell companies, and funneled projects totaling approximately KRW 107.9 billion between November 2017 and October 2021.

Although a construction company owned by Chairman Kwon's wife actually carried out all the work, they disguised the operations as if two shell companies had successfully secured construction contracts through competitive bidding.

Through this scheme, Chairman Kwon and his wife were found to have issued or received false tax invoices amounting to approximately KRW 6.2 billion and KRW 204 billion, respectively.

Prosecutors concluded that Chairman Kwon's wife evaded KRW 190 million in gift taxes arising from transactions between specially related corporations by placing shares of the three companies—which were actually owned by the couple—under the names of acquaintances.

They also determined that the couple concealed income by recovering corporate dividends paid to proxy shareholders, thereby dodging KRW 460 million in comprehensive income taxes, leading to a total tax evasion charge amounting to roughly KRW 600 million.

Deutsch Motors is a domestic distributor for the German automaker BMW, and the company previously drew widespread attention over a massive stock manipulation scandal involving Kim Keon-hee, the spouse of former President Yoon Suk Yeol.

In April of last year, Chairman Kwon received a finalized suspended prison sentence over the stock manipulation case.

Kim Keon-hee was sentenced to four years in prison in the second trial of the same case for violations of the Capital Markets Act, and a Supreme Court appeal is currently underway.

(Photo: Yonhap News)