Hanjin Shipping’s HQ Raided

The headquarters of South Korean conglomerate Hanjin Group and its affiliates have been raided earlier today by the Seoul prosecutors amid corruption allegations.

The Hanjin Group is a holding company that includes a shipping company, Hanjin Shipping, and Korean Air.

Investigators and prosecutors of the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office seized documents and computer discs from Korean Air Lines Co., Hanjin Group and Hanjin Shipping Co, Yonhap news agency reports.

As informed, Moon Hee-sang, former head of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, is suspected of influence-peddling potentially connected to Hanjin Group.

Namely, he is accused of asking in 2010 for his brother-in-law to be employed by Bridge Warehouse, an American firm linked with Korean Air.

The Korean Air firm was chaired by Cho Yang-ho, whose family established the Hanjin Group and subsequently the airline and numerous logistics companies.

Commenting on the event, Hanjin denied any type of involvement with Bridge Warehouse, which is a “separate company in which it has not invested a penny”, Yonhap reports.

Hanjin also denied of having any type of knowledge of Cho’s activities on the matter.

Hanjin Shipping has just started to recover from a USD 620.7 million net loss, reported in 2013, having recorded an annual net loss of USD 386.6 million in 2014.

World Maritime News Staff