Prosecution Summarily Indicts Park Mundeok, HiteJinro Chairman, for 'Omission of Family Company'

Park Moon-duk, Chairman of HiteJinro.
Photo by Asia Economy DB

[Asia Economy Reporter Junhyung Lee] The prosecution has summarily indicted Park Mundeok, chairman of the HiteJinro Group, on charges of omitting information related to affiliated family companies when submitting corporate status data to the Fair Trade Commission.

The Fair Trade Investigation Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Gojinwon) filed a summary indictment against Chairman Park on the 29th, applying charges of violating the Fair Trade Act and requesting a fine.

A summary indictment is a procedure in which the prosecution requests a fine or penalty without a formal trial, based solely on written review. The amount of the fine requested by the prosecution has not been disclosed.

Chairman Park is accused of submitting false data by omitting information about six affiliated companies and seven family members in materials submitted to the Fair Trade Commission five times from April 2017 to April last year for the designation of a mutual investment restriction business group. In June, the Fair Trade Commission reported Chairman Park to the prosecution on suspicion of omitting five companies, including Yeonam, Songjeong, and Daewoo Chemical, in which family members hold 100% of the shares, when submitting group status data.

Yeonam and Songjeong are companies owned by Chairman Park's nephews. The other three companies are private companies wholly owned by Chairman Park's distant cousin, his son, and grandson.

It was also investigated that Chairman Park omitted seven family members who are shareholders or executives of Daewoo Chemical, Daewoo Package, and Daewoo Combine from the status data, as well as Pyeongam Nongsan Corporation, which is not a family company but has affiliated company employees as shareholders and executives. Under the Fair Trade Act, large business groups must submit designation data containing the status of affiliates, shareholders, and family members to the Fair Trade Commission annually.

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