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Ex-president Chun Doo-hwan’s residence in Seoul’s Yeonhui neighborhood. (provided by GG Auction)
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City to sell items in auction and apply proceeds toward unpaid taxes
The city of Seoul confiscated valuable items from ex-president Chun Doo-hwan’s home in the Yeonhui neighborhood of Seoul’s Seodaemun district on Dec. 20 following a search in connection with 978 million won (US$870,000) in unpaid local taxes. The city plans to sell the confiscated items to apply toward the tax bill. Chun’s home is also reportedly to be put up for public sale according the prosecutors’ procedures for compulsory execution to reclaim unpaid penalties. “Fourteen employees were sent to ex-president Chun Doo-hwan’s home to conduct a domicile search lasting approximately three hours,” explained an official with the 38 Tax Collection Division of the city’s financial affairs bureau. “A total of nine items were seized, including a refrigerator, a TV, artwork, and a globe,” the official added. The city plans to sell off the confiscated items early next year and apply the cash earnings toward Chun’s unpaid taxes. “We’ll have to get an appraisal to know how much the confiscated items are worth, but they do appear to include some things of high value,” the official said. “There was no resistance on ex-president Chun’s part during the confiscation process,” the official added. City officials previously visited the Yeonhui home in April and on Nov. 26 to encourage Chun to submit his taxes, but were told that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and were unable to search the premises. The decision to conduct the search quickly before the end of the year was based on negative public opinion toward Chun after the recent publication of a list of individuals with unpaid taxes, as well as an internal determination that administrative measures to compel payment would become more of a headache once the new year began, the city explained. Chun’s home was confirmed on Dec. 20 to have been registered for public sale the day before on the Korea Asset Management Corporations’ OnBid site. With the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office responsible for requesting the sale, the move appeared to be a step toward disposal procedures to reclaim unpaid penalties, which have not been forthcoming since the property’s Sept. 2013 seizure. The site put up for public sale by Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office consists of four plots of land (at the addresses 95-4, 95-5, 95-45, and 95-46 Yeonhui-dong) and two buildings, with a total appraisal value of 10,232,860,000 won (US$9,098,000): 1,642.6 square meters of land appraised at 9,894,110,000 won (US$8,797,000) and the buildings appraised at 318,450,000 won (US$283,000). Chun’s wife owns most expensive of properties The owners include Chun’s wife Lee Soon-ja and two other individuals. Lee has been sole owner since Sept. 1969 for the most expensive of the six public sale holdings, an 818.9-square meter site at 95-4 Yeonhui-dong with an appraisal value of 5 billion won (US$4.4 million). A housing unit located on the property is also registered as Lee’s sole property. The initial bidding dates for Chun’s property are to take place on Feb. 11–13, 2019, with the appraisal value to serve as the minimum bid. If the property is not sold, a second round of bidding is to take place a week later on Feb. 18–20 with a lower minimum bid of 9.2 billion won (US$8.2 million). “The laws for public sales is different from regular auctions, so acquiring the house from the occupant would require eviction proceedings,” explained a GG Auction source. “An eviction won’t be easy,” the source predicted. By Kim Mi-hyang and Choi Jong-hoon, staff reporters Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
