Kolmar Korea chairman gets 2 1/2-year suspended sentence for tax evasion

Kolmar Korea Chairman Yoon Dong-han was sentenced Monday to 2 1/2 years in prison, suspended for three years, for tax evasion.

Yoon was indicted for failing to pay some 3.6 billion won ($3.2 million) worth of taxes while trading stocks of Kolmar Group subsidiaries under other names. The transactions of Kolmar Group’s affiliate stocks including those of Kolmar, Kolmar Holdings and HNG took place between 2012 and 2015.

The investigation into Yoon revealed that he had traded these stocks under others’ names in order to protect his control over the group against foreign investment companies.

The Seoul Central District Court said in its ruling that while Yoon had benefited substantially from failing to pay the appropriate taxes, his original intent in owning stocks under different names was motivated by business management interests rather than tax evasion. The court also took into consideration the fact that Yoon had eventually paid the overdue taxes.

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)