40 Korean companies caught for stashing away $945.5mn in tax havens

October 7, 2013 Leave a comment

40 companies caught for stashing away $945.5mn in tax havens

2013.10.07 15:10:42

The Korea Customs Service (KCS) said Monday its extraordinary investigation into illicit capital outflows into tax havens, which started in June, found that 40 companies were engaged in illegal foreign currency transactions, siphoning off national wealth of 1.0 trillion won ($945.5 million) overseas. 13 of the 40 companies were reported to have been responsible for illegal foreign currency transactions totaling 738.9 billion won, according to online press media Korea Center for Investigative Journalism (KCIJ).  Of 182 Koreans listed as culprits by the KCIJ, the customs agency verified backgrounds of 160 people and first looked into 26 companies suspected of having been engaged in illicit export and import deals. Meanwhile, the KCS confirmed five of the 40 companies evaded corporate tax payment worth 15 billion won and informed the National Tax Service the inquiry’s outcome. The customs agency will be notifying the national tax agency a full result once the allegations against the remaining 35 companies are verified.  Baek Un-chan, commissioner of the KCS, said “this extraordinary probe was conducted in cooperation with the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, National Tax Service and Financial Supervisory Service, and is expected to significantly contribute to bringing underground economy to a legitimate market and ensuring fair taxation.” The investigation found that five companies manipulated export and import prices and stashed away 630.1 billion won in tax havens.

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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