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Is it bad blood between two powerful government agencies ― the National Tax Service (NTS) and prosecutors? Some speculate that SK, being the target of fierce investigations by prosecutors, may be put in the crosshairs as the result of the rivalry between the two. Thus, those with enough knowledge about the two agencies predict that tax collectors will try and get even with prosecutors, perhaps targeting prosecutors-turned lawyers for probes. They don’t offer examples but argue that if this tit-for-tat takes place, it won’t be the first time.
About 10 investigators of the prosecutors’ office raided the Seoul Regional Tax Office Tuesday, taking documents related to former chief of the second investigation bureau Lee Hee-wan, suspected of getting 3.1 billion won of “consulting fees” from SK for providing favors to the conglomerate in tax probes. This is the second time in two years that prosecutors raided the tax agency. In October 2010, a group of investigators of the prosecutors’ office took documents of the tax authority’s Seoul office for an investigation into Taekwang Group’s slush funds. “It was not a big raid. We just submitted documents to them in accordance with the law as they came to us with warrants issued by courts,” said an official of the NTS on condition of anonymity. He worried that NTS is increasingly being described as home of corruption with the investigation. “It’s all done. I do not want to hear more about that.” Another director of the NTS hoped that the prosecutors should be more careful in dealing with such matters. “The term ‘raid’ can create a misunderstanding as if we have done something wrong,” he said. Sources say that the NTS can counterattack prosecutors with a strong weapon of its own ― tax investigation. One source said that there is one precedent that tax collectors pinched prosecutors when they felt hurt while investigating the income tax of lawyers, who previously worked as prosecutors. “NTS launched a special tax investigation against prosecutors-turned-lawyers in 2007 when its former commissioner Jeon Goon-pyo was investigated by the prosecutors’ office for bribery,” said the source familiar with the matter on condition of anonymity. He said that tax officials were upset with the prosecutors at the time because prosecutors called Jeon to its Busan office, which they think violated protocol. “They were upset because Jeon was not investigated in Seoul. Jeon could not help but go down to the southern port city for five hours in a car.” The agency even sent a press release to reporters regarding the matter to unveil the lawyers’ wrongdoings, according to the source. He said that the targeted lawyers called prosecutors to stop annoying tax officials as they feel victimized by the power struggle. Analysts say that the Jeon case became a turning point of the NTS-prosecutors’ office relationship. Before the case, the two powerful government agencies cooperated as both needed each other. For prosecutors, the tax office’s enormous amounts of documents for big companies are crucial for its investigations, while NTS needed the prosecutors’ favor in its corruption cases, according to observers. The prosecutors’ office said that NTS is not an exception for investigation. “We probe any government agency if it is suspected of crimes,” said Kim Seok-jae, acting spokesman for the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office. Kim said that the office raided the tax agency with warrants issued by the court.
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| shosta@koreatimes.co.kr |
