East Asia Culture Center Revises Six Years of Financial Statements in August and September
95 Billion Won Donated by Mrs. Kim Oksuk Omitted... Allegations of Legal Violations
It has been confirmed that the East Asia Culture Center, chaired by No Jae-heon, son of former President Roh Tae-woo, recently made multiple revisions to its financial disclosure reports from past years. However, the newly revised financial reports contain indications that the center may have violated current laws, raising expectations of controversy.
In particular, following the revelation of hidden slush funds of former President Roh during the divorce proceedings between his sister, No So-young, director of Art Center Nabi, and Choi Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, suspicions have been raised that slush funds also flowed into the center, drawing attention to possible connections.
According to the official corporate financial disclosure list from the National Tax Service on the 16th, the center revised six financial disclosures for the fiscal years 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 in bulk on August 29 and September 20.
This period was right after it was revealed that Kim Ok-sook, wife of former President Roh, had donated 14.7 billion KRW to the center. Notably, the disclosures for four fiscal years?2017, 2020, 2021, and 2023?were revised again after having been re-disclosed once before.
In the 2023 fiscal year financial statement, the center corrected the carried-over donation balance from "0 KRW" to "9.7 billion KRW." This amount includes 9.5 billion KRW donated by Mrs. Kim in 2020, raising suspicions of violations of the Inheritance Tax and Gift Tax Act.
According to Article 48 of this law, public interest corporations must use all donated assets for public interest projects within three years. Violations are considered gifts, and tax authorities are mandated to impose gift taxes. In other words, the center initially disclosed that there was no carried-over amount but later voluntarily reported that 9.7 billion KRW remained, despite the requirement to have used the entire 9.5 billion KRW donated by Mrs. Kim within three years for public interest purposes.
The total donation expenditure from 2020 to 2023 was only about 1.45 billion KRW, and as of December 2023, the donation balance stood at 9.7 billion KRW, indicating that the amount donated in 2020 was not used within three years. It is also necessary to investigate whether the center’s initial indication of a "0 KRW" donation balance was intended to conceal legal violations.
The center also changed the details regarding the assets contributed by Director No. Until the 2021 fiscal year, No So-young’s contributed assets were recorded as "cash," but from the 2022 fiscal year, they were recorded as "savings and deposits." Additionally, the "relationship with the chairman" was indicated until the 2021 fiscal year but was removed from related items starting in 2022. By inconsistently disclosing objective information about contributed assets, the center undermined the credibility of its disclosures.
No So-young, Director of Art Center Nabi, and No Jae-heon, Chairman of the East Asian Cultural Center, visited the funeral hall of the late Professor Emeritus Kim Dong-gil at Yonsei University, set up at the Kim Ok-gil Memorial Hall in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, on the 5th. Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@
Notably, in the fiscal year 2012, when the center was established, it recorded "No So-young 10 million KRW cash contribution," but from the 2013 to 2015 fiscal years, the contributor was not listed. In the 2016 financial statement, the amount was revised from "No So-young 10 million KRW cash contribution" to "500 million KRW." A significant amount of funds came from the chairman’s sister, but the center failed to properly disclose this.
Among those who contributed to the center alongside Director No, there were individuals presumed to be the nominal holders of a 21 billion KRW insurance policy under Mrs. Kim’s name. During a recent National Assembly audit, Jeong Cheong-rae, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, revealed that Moon Dong-hwi, Jeong Gwan-hee, and Lee Chang-won, close associates of former President Roh, were the nominal holders of Mrs. Kim’s secret accounts. The center disclosed these three as contributors.
Our publication attempted to contact Sehwa Accounting Corporation, which conducted the external audit of the center’s revised disclosures, but was unable to reach them.
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