The police search and seizure of the Jongno Tax Office in Seoul lasted for 7 hours from the morning of the 12th.



Dozens of investigators obtained data necessary for the investigation by accessing the tax office's PC and the internal server of the tax office.



The police are investigating whether the two former Jongno tax chiefs have violated the law by confirming that they signed advisory contracts with dozens of local businesses and received billions of dollars each.



It is known that the companies paid them 500,000 to 2 million won in torture fees per month for one year.



Many of these companies are members of the Taxation Council, which is affiliated with the Jongno Tax Office.



The Taxation Council was established in each tax office in 1979 under the pretext of communicating with local taxpayers, but was abolished at the end of last year after a series of complaints that it had turned into a lobby window.



I went to the office of a personal tax accountant set up by former tax chiefs who were the subject of the investigation.



When he revealed his identity as a reporter, he hurriedly left and was not able to meet another former tax chief.



[Mr. A / Former Jongno Tax Office Manager: (You must have some regrets) I have an appointment right now... (Do you think there is no problem with the contract?) …

…

.]



[Tax firm official: He's not here right now.

You didn't go to work today.

You're on a business trip...

.]



It is known that the two former tax chiefs admitted that they had signed an advisory contract with a company during a police subpoena in April, but stated that they signed the contract after retirement and there were no legal problems.



However, yesterday the police seized and searched seven companies that the two identified as having signed an advisory contract while serving as the head of the tax office.



The police have booked about 10 company officials and two former tax chiefs on charges of violating the Anti-Graft Act, and are investigating whether the torture fees they exchanged are related to their work while in office.



This is SBS Son Ki-jun.



(Video coverage: Park Hyun-cheol / Editing: Won-hee Won / CG: Lee Jun-ho / VJ: Kim Jong-gap / Production: D Content Planning Department)