A convicted former senior tax official has been additionally indicted on charges of receiving a massive amount of money in return for helping South Korea's third-largest industrial conglomerate SK Group evade tax audits, prosecutors said Monday.
Lee Hee-wan, a former director at the Seoul Regional Tax Office, allegedly took a total of 3.15 billion won (US$2.8 million) from SK affiliates from September 2006 to March last year for peddling his influence in easing up and canceling the tax agency's inspections for taxation, according to prosecutors.
The amount of taxes Lee helped the group evade is unknown.
The indictment came after Lee was sentenced to a suspended prison term in July last year for taking money from a private education institution in return for helping it evade taxes.
Lee's ties with SK Group started in 2006 when he, right after retiring from the tax office, accepted the firm's suggestion that Lee became an advisor for SK's tax matters, according to prosecutors.
Lee called his personal contacts in the tax agency to use his influence as a former ranking tax official in helping the group avoid tight inspections, prosecutors also noted.
Local law bans public employees for two years from working with private employers in sectors related with their public duties after retiring, mainly to prevent influence peddling by former public workers. (Yonhap News)
