Luxury Watch Smuggling Duty-Free Shop Owner Sent to Trial

Customers are shopping at a duty-free store in downtown Seoul.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] A former CEO of a domestic duty-free shop company has been prosecuted for purchasing high-priced duty-free goods under the names of foreigners and smuggling them into Korea.

On the 20th, the Foreign Affairs Division of the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office announced that it had indicted A, the former CEO of HDC Shilla Duty Free, and six others without detention on charges of violating the Customs Act. Among those prosecuted along with A were four former and current employees of HDC Shilla Duty Free and the CEO and employees of a special sales company based in Hong Kong. They are suspected of smuggling luxury watches into Korea from Hong Kong in 2016 without declaring them to customs. The watches, four high-end brand timepieces, are worth approximately 170 million KRW.

An employee of the Hong Kong-based special sales company, which regularly transacted with HDC Shilla Duty Free, purchased luxury watches at duty-free prices in Korea under the names of foreigners at A's request and took them to Hong Kong. Subsequently, employees of HDC Shilla Duty Free, acting under A's instructions, received the luxury watches and smuggled them back into Korea.

This case exploited the fact that foreigners can purchase unlimited quantities of goods at downtown duty-free shops. The special sales company buys large quantities of inventory from domestic duty-free shops at discounted prices and sells them overseas. The Incheon Main Customs Office launched an investigation last year and conducted a search and seizure. A was the CEO at the time of the crime but has since stepped down.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.