The National Tax Service said on the 3rd that it has confirmed suspicions of tax evasion by the domestic liaison office of Prince Group, known as the force behind Cambodia's scam crimes, and a currency exchange shop linked to Huiyuan Group, and has launched a tax investigation.
The National Tax Service plans to investigate not only the domestic base of the Cambodian corporation but also suspicions of tax evasion by related parties in Korea, and to work closely with relevant agencies to recover criminal revenue.
The National Tax Service recently launched a tax investigation into the domestic liaison office of Prince Group, known as the force behind Cambodia's scam crimes. Prince Group was said to have operated the "Prince Real Estate Group Korea Office" in Sunhwa-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul.
The National Tax Service noted that the corporation hired sales staff and carried out business in Korea but disguised itself as a simple liaison office and failed to report domestically generated business income and withholding tax on earned income for sales staff.
After reviewing the corporation's accounting records, the National Tax Service said, "It raised real estate investment funds ranging from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of won per person from domestic investors and remitted them overseas," adding, "Given that no actual real estate acquisitions by domestic investors can be confirmed, there are suspicions that revenue from phishing crimes was funneled overseas under the guise of overseas real estate investment."
Authorities also detected suspected tax evasion of income generated from operating a currency exchange shop in Korea affiliated with the Cambodian financial group "Huiyuan." According to the National Tax Service, a Korean national identified as A is suspected of underreporting income by understating exchange performance while operating a currency exchange shop related to Huiyuan, an overseas financial group suspected of illegal money laundering.
A had no significant source of income other than operating the currency exchange shop and small-scale personal service income. A reported a loss each year over the past five years related to the exchange shop's operations, but consumption expenditure was found to be in the hundreds of millions of won, indicating suspected omission of income. The National Tax Service also said that multiple entries and exits after acquiring the exchange shop suggest links to Huiyuan Group.
The National Tax Service will conduct a rigorous investigation into currency exchange fee income and will simultaneously verify, through tracing exchange transaction records, whether there are links to crimes such as illegal money laundering.
Ahn Deok-su, director general of investigations at the National Tax Service, said, "To prevent the spread of damage from international scam crimes and the outflow of national wealth, and to spread the recognition that international criminal organizations can no longer obtain revenue from crimes targeting Koreans, we will relentlessly trace the income obtained by criminal organizations, recover it through taxes, and, if necessary, switch to a criminal-tax investigation to respond forcefully."