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Photo = Yonhap news |
[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] The Supreme Court has overturned a lower court ruling that partially acquitted former Samyang Foods Chairman Jeon In-jang, who was indicted for issuing fraudulent tax invoices through paper companies. The retrial is expected to revisit his legal responsibility for transactions previously deemed guilty in the first trial.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court's Third Division, presided over by Justice Lee Heung-gu, annulled the appellate court’s ruling and sent the case back for reconsideration. Jeon had initially been sentenced to one year and six months in prison, suspended for three years, along with a fine of KRW 650 million.
The Supreme Court ruled that the transactions previously deemed innocent in the second trial still constituted fraudulent tax invoice issuance. It stated, “For transactions other than the intra-group deals that the appellate court found guilty, the issuance, receipt, and submission of tax invoices and summary statements should be attributed to paper companies rather than the actual transaction parties—Samyang Foods, Samyang Foods Co., and Samyang Enterprise Co.”
With this decision, Jeon will face a retrial at the Seoul High Court. In the first trial, he was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for five years, along with a KRW 19.1 billion fine. However, the appellate court significantly reduced his sentence after partially acquitting him of tax law violations.
Jeon was indicted in December 2019 for issuing approximately KRW 53 billion worth of fake invoices and tax invoices through two paper companies between 2010 and 2017. Samyang Foods and its affiliates, which were involved in the fraudulent invoice scheme, were also prosecuted for violating tax laws.
AlphaBIZ Kim Jisun(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
