"Even People Who Appeared on TV Do It..." Tax Investigation Launched into Stock Reading Rooms That Deceived Small Investors by Impersonating Famous Celebrities

55 People Including Stock Leading Rooms, Scam Coin Companies, and Wedding Companies Targeted

The National Tax Service (NTS) has launched a tax investigation into 'illegal leading rooms' and others who evaded taxes by collecting high membership fees under the lure of high returns and then concealing them.

On the 5th, the NTS announced that it will conduct simultaneous nationwide tax investigations on 55 suspects accused of tax evasion that harms the public livelihood, including 25 one-shot tax evaders who stole the spare funds of ordinary people with fraudulent information and 30 living-related excessive profit tax evaders who took advantage of the high inflation trend.

The subjects of this tax investigation include ▲illegal leading rooms (16 people) ▲stock manipulation and scam coin (cryptocurrency fraud) companies (9 people) ▲wedding companies that omitted import declarations (5 people) ▲beverage manufacturing companies that misused corporate funds as gambling funds for owners (7 people) ▲and dining companies whose owners received ultra-high salaries (18 people).

According to the NTS, A Corporation, a leading room company providing stock information, recruited paid members by promoting with a famous celebrity and making false and exaggerated advertisements such as 'unconditionally 300%' and 'refund guarantee.' The membership fees ranged from several million won to up to several hundred million won. A Corporation did not report membership fee income worth hundreds of billions of won to the NTS by using dozens of disguised card cashing companies for payments (also creating false contracts) or by inducing cash payments. In addition, it evaded corporate tax by receiving false tax invoices for advertising expenses and sales commissions as if it had received services from related special corporations and recording them as fabricated expenses. The owner family of A Corporation registered several high-priced imported cars as corporate vehicles and used them privately, purchased luxury goods with corporate cards, and enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle including golf courses and luxury hotels. The NTS plans to conduct a strict investigation into the allegations of unreported income and receipt of false tax invoices.

Cases of illegal reading rooms.

Companies that attracted investors with fraudulent false information, manipulated prices to reap huge profits, and failed to report capital gains tax and other taxes are also targets of the NTS's current tax investigation.

Company B announced that it would enter promising new businesses through the acquisition (share purchase) of Company C, attracting investors and artificially raising the stock price in a short period, but the stock price plummeted due to trading suspension. Many investment associations, major shareholders of Company B, sold all their shares the day before the trading suspension, gaining huge capital gains, but the association members failed to report capital gains tax and related taxes. The NTS plans to closely verify the actual investors of the investment associations and collect income tax and related taxes.

Also, some companies falsely packaged business prospects and deceived the public, including young workers and retirees, into purchasing their new coins with promises of high dividends, earning sales profits worth thousands of billions of won but evading taxes on related income. It was also detected that while stopping profit payments to victims, they continued to pay false business income to their relatives or diverted corporate funds by paying business agency fees to ghost corporations.

There were also wedding companies and others that failed to report huge cash income while enjoying the endemic boom. Company D experienced a boom with sales doubling due to increased demand and strengthened market dominance after many competitors closed during the COVID-19 period, leading to market oligopoly. Company D induced cash payments with discounts as bait and failed to report income. It also reduced income by excessively paying service fees to related parties owned by the owner family or recording false daily labor costs and paid fabricated labor costs to the owner family.

An NTS official said, "Company D registered several luxury imported cars privately used by the owner family as business vehicles, and the corporation bore the related costs," adding, "We will thoroughly identify unreported cash income and verify reduced income to strictly collect the rightful tax amount."

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