LG Group headquarters were raided by state prosecution upon the tax authority’s suspicion of tax evasion by the owner family of South Korea’s fourth largest conglomerate.

Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said Wednesday its investigators searched the company’s offices in Yeoido of western Seoul following a complaint from the National Tax Service that the family of LG Chairman Koo Bon-moo evaded taxes during stock transactions of LG affiliates.

Prosecutors are said to be looking into charges that affiliates have been funneling work to Pantos Logistics Co., a subsidiary of LG International Corp., with family members making unlawful gains from the internal trading. Pantos Logistics is 51 percent owned by LG International and 20 percent owned by the Koo family.

LG International is also accused of dodging taxes by setting up a paper company in a tax haven through Pantos.

Prosecutors also suspect irregularities in stock transactions of heir apparent Koo Kwang-mo, the only son of chairman Koo, who has been building up his stake in the holding company LG Corp. as part of the planned succession of leadership.

By Lee Jae-cheol and Kim Hyo-jin

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