Tax authorities accuse owners and senior executives of’ three of Republic of Korea’ s main newspapers of three kind of crimes, e

South Korean ROK tax authorities have asked government prosecutors to begin criminal investigations into six newspapers for alleged tax evasion. This, after tax officials’ slapped record fines on local media last week. As Hyun-Sung Khang reports from Seoul, critics believe the tax audits are being used for political purposes.
     South Korea’ s tax authorities want six newspapers investigated for allegedly failing to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes.
     Among those to be investigated are owners and senior executives of three of South Korea’ s main newspapers: The Choson Ilbo, The Donga-Ah Ilbo and The Joong-Ang llbo. Tax authorities accuse them of falsifying accounts, selling shares to family members at below market value and money laundering.
     The move follows a highly controversial government-led tax audit of the country’ s media. The probe results show 23 media organizations allegedly evaded almost 400-million in taxes from 1995 up to last year.