South Korean Prosecutors Seek Arrest Warrant for Korean Air Chairman

Corruption is Everywhere

 - and it's completely trashed this once powerful South Korean family

By Wooyoung Lee 

Korean Air Lines Co. Chairman Cho Yang-ho appears at a prosecution office in Seoul on June 28, 2018, to undergo questioning over allegations of tax evasion, breach of trust and embezzlement. Photo by Yonhap

SEOUL, UPI -- South Korean prosecutors issued an arrest warrant Monday for Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho for charges of inheritance tax evasion and embezzlement, among others.

Cho was summoned for a 15-hour questioning last week over such allegations at the Seoul Prosecutors' Office.

He has been under probe over suspicion that he evaded taxes for more than $45 million (50 billion won) in his inheritance of overseas properties from his father Cho Joong-hoon, the founder of Korean Air Lines, according to Yonhap.

Cho is also accused of paying his lawyer's fee from the company budget when his daughter Cho Hyun-ah, then the Korean Air vice president, was under trial over the notorious "nut rage" incident in 2014.

He also allegedly paid another lawyer's fee with the company fund when he was being investigated over a scandal, in which he received an unfair request to hire a lawmaker's relative in 2015.

Cho also faces an allegation of raising illicit profits from running a pharmacy.

It is the third time that a key member of the Korean Air founding family was called for an investigation and sought with an arrest warrant. Earlier, prosecutors requested arrest warrants for Cho's wife Lee Myung-hee for charges of illegally hiring foreign housekeepers, assault and verbal abuse.

Cho's daughter Hyun-min, the former vice president of Korean Air Lines' budget Jin Air, was also accused of assault from throwing a cup of water to a business meeting attendee.

The court, however, declined to issue arrest warrants for both mother and daughter.

You would almost think this family had made some powerful political enemies considering some of the charges leveled at them. Regardless of whether or not they have enemies, they seem to keep giving them ammunition to shot them with. Both daughters resigned from the airlines in April, and the father resigned in May (2nd story on link). 

The Cost of Being Spoiled Brats

Korean Air heiresses resign from executive roles

By Daniel Uria  

Two Korean Air heiresses resigned from their executive roles Sunday after investigators raided the company's headquarters to collect evidence regarding allegations they had abused subordinates. Photo by Yonhap/EPA

UPI -- The head of Korean Air announced Sunday his two daughters have resigned from their positions at the company in light of allegations they abused subordinates.

Chairman of Hanjin Group and Korean Air Cho Yang-ho said his two daughters Cho Hyun-min, 35, and Cho Hyun-ah,43, will depart all posts at the Hanjin conglomerate, effective immediately.

He also said Korean Air will create a new vice chairman position to be filled by someone outside of the Cho family and will strengthen the board's role in company operations.

Cho Yang-ho also issued an apology for his daugters' behavior amid growing anger throughout South Korea against the the family-run conglomerates, known as chaebol, which dominate the country's economy.

"I am deeply sorry that problems connected to my family have worried the people and employees of Korean Air," he said. "As chairman of Korean Air and as the head of my family, I feel crushed by the immature behavior of my daughters."

The announcement comes after Seoul police raided Korean Air offices Thursday to investigate allegations that Cho Hyun-min yelled and threw water or plum juice at an advertising firm employee.

OK, this is a police incident? It's stupid, immature behaviour but the woman needs to be sent to her room not investigated by police. This is just bizarre! Her sister, on the other hand...

Investigators confiscated Cho Hyun-min's computer and two of her mobile phones and also seized mobile phones and a personal computer belonging to executive members during the marketing firm where her alleged victim works.

Police plan to determine whether the two sides had coordinated their stories and if any threats had been made to the marketing firm.

Cho Hyun-min has denied she threw the cup at the employee's face, saying she pushed it toward the ground and neither of the victims have reportedly expressed the wish to seek a case against the heiress.

The elder sister Cho Hyun-ah made global headlines in 2014 for a so-called "nut rage" incident, in which she after forced a plane to return to the gate and forced an employee to kneel and beg for forgiveness, over how macademia nuts were served.

She was sentenced to a year in prison, but later freed after an appeals court cleared her of the most of hampering an air route.