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| Hankook & Company Chairman Cho Hyun-beom |
According to legal circles on November 11, the Fair Trade Commission filed a complaint with the prosecution against Hankook & Company Chairman Cho Hyun-beom on charges of violating the Fair Trade Act the previous day.
The Fair Trade Investigation Department at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (senior prosecutor Lee Jeong-seop) called in Chairman Cho as a witness on the 23rd of last month and found circumstantial evidence that he was involved in the group's illegal activities and asked the Fair Trade Commission to file a complaint against Chairman Cho.
The Fair Trade Commission has the exclusive right to file a complaint against violations of the Fair Trade Act. The Fair Trade Commission, which conducted the first investigation, filed a complaint with the prosecution against only Hankook Tire Corporation.
Hankook Tire is suspected of providing unfair support by buying tire molds manufactured by its affiliate MKT (Korea Precision Works) between February 2014 and December 2017 at a higher price than other manufacturers. During the unfair support period, MKT recorded sales of 87.52 billion won, sales of 37.02 billion won, and operating profit of 32.37 billion won.
Prosecutors suspect that Hankook Tire's profits to MKT have flowed into the Hankook Tire's family.
AlphaBIZ 김지선(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
