Roh Jae-hun, the eldest son of the ex-president Roh Tae-woo [Pool Picture]
The eldest son of South Korea's former president Roh Tae-woo was found to have set up three secret paper firms in a tax haven in the British Virgin Islands, an online news outlet reported Monday, calling for an investigation into possible tax evasion.
The companies were established by Roh Jae-hun, the 50-year-old son of the former president who ruled the country from 1988 to 1993, Newstapa reported, based on analysis of internal documents leaked from Mossack Fonteca, a Panama law firm known for helping clients conceal assets.
In cooperation with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), Newstapa has investigated the documents obtained first by a German newspaper.
The documents have been analyzed by news organizations worldwide, which discovered the names of global sports and movies starts as well as prominent politicians and relatives who were allegedly involved in covert transactions.
Newstapa said Roh Jae-hun set up the companies by issuing just a single US$1 share in the tax heaven in 2012.
In 1997, Roh Tae-woo, 83, was sentenced to 17 years in prison on charges stemming from a 1979 military coup that brought his military colleague, Chun Doo-hwan, to power, and a bloody crackdown in the southern city of Gwangju in 1980 that killed hundreds of pro-democracy protesters.
Chun, who served as president from 1980 to 1988, was initially sentenced to death but was later pardoned together with Roh Tae-woo.
Chun was ordered to repay 220 billion won of his slush fund he had amassed in bribes from businessmen. Prosecutors have collected only a quarter of the total by scrutinizing his family assets, with 167.2 billion won unpaid.
By late 2011, Roh Tae-woo has repaid 239.7 billion won out of a fine of 262.8 billion won.
Newstapa called for a full tax probe into Roh Jae-hun, suggesting his paper companies were set up months after his father stopped repaying his fine.
In 2013, Newstapa reported that Chun's eldest son set up a secret paper company in the British Virgin Islands, prompting tax authorities to launch a fresh probe into his hidden assets. Under pressure, the son has promised to repay the unpaid fine.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
