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[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Kim Jisun] It has been confirmed that the police have launched an investigation into POSCO Holdings' purchase and operation of luxury villas for former and current chairmen with company money. The police are also expected to check whether outside directors used the villa. The scope of the investigation has been expanded to luxury villas following POSCO's "luxury business trips" by directors inside and outside the company.
According to the steel industry and police on the 31st, the financial crime investigation unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency demanded that POSCO Holdings submit data containing the timing and purpose of purchasing luxury villas and the details of villa users by next week. Police are reportedly questioning whether POSCO Holdings can ask management about the possibility of breach of duty, given that it purchased a villa that can only be used by very few executives and paid property taxes with company money.
POSCO Holdings purchased Alpensia Estate in July 2018 under the corporate name. It is a two-story villa with 387.65 square meters (about 172 pyeong) worth more than 4 billion won per house. It is known that most of the former and current presidents used unshared villas that cannot be used by ordinary employees.
The police are also expected to look into whether outside directors used the villa. It is to check whether it violates the anti-graft law.
The police also asked for supplementary data on the "Canada Board of Directors" in August last year, a business trip to Argentina and a Chinese board of directors, which were joined by internal and external directors. An industry official said, "We understand that the data submitted by POSCO was poor and that the police demanded it again." POSCO Holdings Chairman Choi Jung-woo and other board members spent 680 million won on the five-night and seven-day "overseas board meeting" in Canada in August last year.
"It is understood that the facility was not used by outside directors," a POSCO Holdings official said. "We will faithfully respond to police investigations in the future."
AlphaBIZ 김지선(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
