‘5.9 Billion Won Scale’ Label-Switched Clothing, Public Institution Supplier Caught

A company that supplied 120,000 pieces of clothing with relabeled (origin disguised) tags to public institutions was caught by customs authorities. The clothing supplied by this company is estimated to be worth 5.9 billion KRW.

Origin of public procurement work uniforms, laundry, and public institution supply transactions. Provided by Seoul Customs, Korea Customs Service

On the 25th, the Seoul Customs Office of the Korea Customs Service announced that it had sent Mr. A (48), a trader who imported clothing produced in Vietnam and then disguised it as Korean-made to fraudulently supply work uniforms to public enterprises and local governments, to the prosecution on charges of violating the Foreign Trade Act.

In November of last year, Seoul Customs found suspicious points during an origin labeling inspection of company B, operated by Mr. A, and immediately launched an investigation. They secured evidence such as supply contracts with public institutions, purchase orders to the Vietnamese clothing factory, and delivery completion documents at company B’s business site.

The investigation revealed that Mr. A participated in public procurement bids that require supplying products produced domestically by small and medium-sized enterprises under the “Act on the Promotion of Purchase of Small and Medium Enterprise Products and Support for Development of Markets,” and won contracts.

However, in reality, he imported goods (clothing) from Vietnam, removed the original labels (origin), and replaced them with Korean labels to supply the contracted goods to public institutions.

From June 2020 to December 2022, the goods supplied by Mr. A to 20 public institutions were jumpers, T-shirts, and other items produced in Vietnam, with a cost price confirmed to be 3.1 billion KRW.

On the other hand, customs explained that he fabricated the delivery as Korean-made work uniforms worth 5.9 billion KRW to public institutions and pocketed the profit difference.

It was also confirmed that during the crime, Mr. A established a separate paper company in Korea and used it as the importer to evade the investigation network on his company’s supply contracts.

Separately from sending Mr. A to the prosecution, customs imposed a fine of 210 million KRW for damaging origin labeling.

Jung Seung-hwan, head of Seoul Customs Office at the Korea Customs Service, said, “Disguising low-quality foreign products as Korean-made and supplying them to public institutions is a serious crime that prevents domestic small and medium manufacturers from having supply opportunities and causes safety accidents in public institutions.” He added, “Customs will strengthen crackdowns in cooperation with public institutions to respond to such crimes in the future.”

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