Prosecutors issue subpoena to head of shipping company

SEOUL, July 24 (Yonhap) -- Prosecutors have issued a subpoena to the head of a shipping company over alleged tax evasion, officials said Sunday. Kwon Hyuk, chairman of Cido Maritime Corp, was ordered to appear before the prosecutors' office on Monday over findings by the country's tax office that he evaded taxes of up to about 900 billion won (US$855 million), the officials of the prosecutors' office said. Kwon, who is suspected of having secret bank accounts in Switzerland and has operations in Hong Kong, has claimed he received almost no dividend earnings, so there was no way for him to amass wealth to pay taxes. He is staying in South Korea because he is banned from leaving the country. The subpoena comes as South Korea is stepping up efforts to detect its nationals and companies engaged in offshore tax evasion schemes by directly investigating foreign financial accounts. Some individuals and companies establish overseas paper companies and foreign accounts to hide wealth and earnings to avoid paying local taxes.