‘False Tax Invoice Issuance’ LCT Lee Young-bok, Acquitted Confirmed

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Kyung-jun] Lee Young-bok, the real owner of the Busan LCT developer who was prosecuted for issuing false tax invoices worth hundreds of billions of won, has been acquitted.

The Supreme Court's 1st Division (Presiding Justice Kim Sun-soo) announced on the 22nd that it upheld the lower court's ruling acquitting Lee, who was indicted on charges of issuing false tax invoices under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes. Park, the former president of LCT, who was also indicted on the same charges, was acquitted as well.

Lee and others were indicted for issuing false tax invoices worth approximately 73 billion won by entering into false service contracts while embezzling funds from the LCT developer and its affiliates between 2009 and 2016.

The first trial court ruled all defendants not guilty, stating that it was difficult to conclude that the service contracts made by Chairman Lee and others were false transactions. Although some service contracts were recognized as false transactions, they were acquitted due to the statute of limitations.

The appellate court also dismissed the prosecution's appeal and acquitted the defendants, stating that actual service transactions existed and there was no reason to believe that another corporation conducted the service transactions.

The Supreme Court agreed with the appellate court's judgment. Meanwhile, Lee was sentenced to six years in prison in 2018 for embezzling about 70 billion won of company funds and other charges.

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