[Courtesy of Korean Air]
SEOUL -- The chief of the country's customs office said Monday that founding family members of Korea Air Lines Co. are likely to be interrogated over their alleged smuggling.
The office has been investigating allegations that family members of Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Yang-ho, also chairman of Korean Air, have smuggled luxury goods into the country without properly paying duties.
Last week, the Korea Customs Service carried out a search of the airline's headquarters over the suspicion raised by some former and current employees that the chairman's children and even his wife circumvented the law using the company to bring in goods from overseas without proper declaration.
Smuggling is an offense that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and fines up to 10 times the duties evaded.
"We will thoroughly investigate the case, and if there are problems, we will punish (them)," Kim Young-moo, the chief of the KCS, told reporters.
The move comes as Cho's family has been under fire for abusing employees and contractors.
Hanjin's chief offered a public apology due to mounting public outrage over his daughter Hyun-min, who is accused of throwing water in the face of an ad agency manager during a meeting last month.
She is the younger sister of Cho Hyun-ah, who gained global notoriety for the "nut rage" incident in 2014. She forced a plane back to the boarding gate at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport because she was upset with the way her nuts were served -- in an unopened bag instead of on a plate.
Last month, Hyun-ah made a comeback as the head of KAL Hotel Network, the operator of the Grand Hyatt Incheon near Incheon International Airport.
Both sisters have since been stripped of their posts at the conglomerate.
(YONHAP)
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
