[비즈한국] Chung Mong-gyu, Chairman of HDC012630, has been summarily indicted on charges of violating the Fair Trade Act. According to legal circles on the 6th, the Fair Trade Investigation Department of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office filed for a summary indictment with the court, requesting a fine of 150 million KRW for Chairman Chung. He is accused of omitting several family-owned affiliates when submitting materials for the designation of business groups subject to cross-shareholding restrictions from 2021 to 2024.
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC), upon filing a complaint against Chairman Chung with the prosecution in March, stated that a total of 20 companies (excluding duplicates) had been missing from the status of affiliated companies in the materials submitted by HDC: 17 in 2021, 19 in 2022, 19 in 2023, and 18 in 2024. The FTC identified that the omitted firms included 12 companies controlled by the family of his maternal uncle, Park Se-jong, Honorary Chairman of SJG Sejong, and 8 companies controlled by the family of his younger sister, Chung Yu-kyung, and Kim Jong-yeop, CEO of Intrans Shipping.
The FTC did not view this matter as a simple clerical error. According to the commission, Chairman Chung has been the designated 'person in control' of HDC since 2006, and HDC has been submitting designation materials for over 25 years since 2000. Furthermore, since transitioning to a holding company structure in 2018, HDC has reported its business status for over 7 years. The FTC's judgment is that Chairman Chung, having served for a long time as an HDC representative who acts as the proxy for submitting these materials, was in a position to fully grasp the scope of his affiliated companies.
The FTC explained that there were internal indications that the possibility of omitting kinship companies had been recognized. The staff in charge of designation tasks had reportedly verified whether the companies met affiliation requirements by inquiring about shareholding status with the kinship companies, and had even internally reviewed the possibility of sanctions. However, no voluntary reporting, incorporation as affiliates, or applications for kinship separation were made. The FTC noted that such omissions lasted for up to 19 years, and considering the 5-year statute of limitations, they focused their accusations only on actions taken since 2021.
The assets of the omitted companies were not insignificant. The FTC determined that the total assets of the companies omitted from 2021 to 2024 exceeded 1 trillion KRW annually, and by remaining outside the HDC group for a long period, these companies evaded regulations on large business groups, such as those governing the exploitation of private interests and disclosure obligations.
HDC pushed back. In an official statement, HDC declared, "Chairman Chung Mong-gyu does not hold any shares in the relatives' companies, and there was neither intent nor motive to deliberately conceal them." They further argued that because those companies received recognition for independent kinship management from the FTC in 2025 and have no shareholding relations, transactions, or debt guarantees with HDC, it is practically difficult to view them as affiliated companies.
However, the FTC's position is that even if 18 of the 20 omitted companies were excluded from affiliation last March after meeting the requirements for independent kinship management, and the remaining 2 companies no longer qualified as affiliates in 2024 due to reduced shareholding, this does not affect the judgment on the illegality of the long-term omission of designation materials. Ultimately, the core issue of this case, regardless of whether the kinship companies are independently managed, is the extent to which the person in control must verify and reflect the scope of affiliated companies at the time of submitting designation materials.
A summary indictment is a procedure in which a fine or penalty is requested through a document review without a formal trial. If the court issues a summary order and neither the prosecutor nor the defendant requests a formal trial within 7 days, the sentence becomes finalized.