Kim Jungkyu, Tire Bank Chairman, Withdraws Supreme Court Appeal Over 'Name Lending Tax Evasion'... Gets 3 Years in Prison

Evading 3.15 billion won in taxes through name lending scheme
Vice Chairman also receives final sentence of 2 years and 6 months in prison

Kim Jungkyu (61), Chairman of Tire Bank, who was sentenced to three years in prison for evading tens of billions of won in taxes by disguising the names of franchise outlets, withdrew his appeal to the Supreme Court, thereby finalizing his sentence.

According to Yonhap News Agency and legal circles on the 10th, Chairman Kim submitted a withdrawal of appeal to the Supreme Court on June 22.

Kim Jungkyu, Chairman of Tire Bank, is answering questions from the press after attending the appellate trial hearing for tax evasion charges held at Daejeon High Court on May 21 last year. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

Previously, on June 2, Chairman Kim had been sentenced to three years in prison and fined 14.1 billion won in a retrial following remand. Afterward, he filed an appeal with the Supreme Court on June 9, stating that he intended to seek a further ruling. However, only a few days after the Supreme Court received the case, Kim withdrew his appeal, which finalized the sentence from the retrial. Prosecutors did not appeal the results of the retrial. The Vice Chairman of Tire Bank, who had been charged with the same offenses and sentenced to two years and six months in prison, also withdrew his appeal, finalizing his sentence as well.

Chairman Kim was indicted in October 2017 on charges of tax evasion, including dispersing business income by using so-called "name lending" tactics, disguising his personally owned Tire Bank outlets as being operated by employees or relatives, resulting in about 8 billion won in evaded comprehensive income tax. In addition, he was accused of issuing and receiving false tax invoices by pretending that commission outlet owners, who were effectively workers, were actually supplying commissioned sales services, and of evading about 90 million won in stock transfer taxes, among other allegations.

In the first trial, Chairman Kim was sentenced to four years in prison and fined 10 billion won. However, in order to guarantee the defendant's right to defense, he was not taken into custody at that time. Subsequently, after administrative litigation and other proceedings, the amount of tax evaded was reduced to 3.9 billion won in the second trial. Nevertheless, in July last year, the Daejeon High Court sentenced Kim to three years in prison and fined him 14.1 billion won, and took him into custody in court.

Thereafter, the Supreme Court sent the case back to the Daejeon High Court in January of this year, citing that the statute of limitations had expired on part of the evaded comprehensive income tax. In the retrial following remand, Kim's evaded amount was reduced to 3.15 billion won, but the Supreme Court rejected the remainder of his grounds for appeal, leaving his sentence unchanged.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.