Hyundai and Posco E & C audited

Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co., Korea’s fourth-largest builder, acknowledged on Saturday that it is undergoing a government tax audit but insisted that it is not linked to any suspected irregularities.
“The probe of the [company’s] head office is the regular kind that is carried out every five years,” said a company spokesman. Hyundai received its last audit by the National Tax Service in 2002.
However, there is speculation that the audit may be connected to what some believe were dubious real estate transactions involving former Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak, a leading opposition party contender in December’s presidential election.
Supporting this view, the tax service is also conducting a similar probe at Posco E&C, which had bought a piece of land in southern Seoul from close relatives of Lee. Opponents suspect that the land might actually have been owned by the presidential contender before it was bought by Posco E & C, a subsidiary of the giant steelmaker Posco.
The transaction, which took place in 1995, resulted in a large profit.
Lee was the CEO of Hyundai Construction from the late 1970s to the early 1990s before becoming an opposition lawmaker. Lee has denied any wrongdoing.

Yonhap