Central Investigation Agency transfers suspicions of false Coupang tax invoices to police... “Concerns about duplicate investigations”

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Won-Jeong Choi = The Serious Crimes Investigation Office handed over Coupang's case of 'suspicion of issuing false tax invoices' to the police.

The Economic Crimes Investigation Bureau of the Seoul Regional Central Investigation Agency announced on the 5th that it had transferred to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency a case filed by the National Tax Service against four people, including the headquarters of Coupang Korea, its logistics subsidiary Coupang Fulfillment Service (CFS) Corporation, and the current and former CEOs of each.

Previously, the National Tax Service reported to the Central Investigation Agency last month that there were circumstances in which Coupang inflated sales by issuing false tax invoices to CFS while providing customers with the benefit of signing up for a paid membership system (Wow Membership) in 2023.

The Seoul Tax and Fisheries Agency determined that although there was an actual transaction, which is the main crime in this case, but the amount, etc., was falsely stated on the tax invoice, it was a violation of the Tax Offender Punishment Act and was not under its jurisdiction.

The explanation is that if a separate investigation is conducted by applying the charge of providing false tax invoices under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes to some crimes in which there was no transaction at all, there may be unnecessary overlap with the police investigation.