The wife of the person responsible for the Ría de Vigo golf club, charged with several alleged crimes against the public treasury, has denied before the court the existence of a network of 'front' companies intended to evade tax obligations or channel undeclared income.
These statements were made by her in her capacity as a witness during the trial against her husband, Cholmin K.K., for whom the Prosecution is seeking prison terms of up to 10 years for tax fraud. The hearing is taking place in the fifth chamber of the Provincial Court of Pontevedra, at the judicial headquarters in Vigo.
In Monday's session, in addition to the debate on preliminary issues, the witnesses presented by the defense appeared, seeking to prove that the defendant did not obtain any benefit from illicit income and that the amounts received were used to meet accumulated debts.
Along these lines, both one of the golf club employees and the defendant's wife herself have admitted that the company that managed the facilities was going through serious financial problems, which caused delays in salary payments and an increase in outstanding payment obligations.
Cholmin's wife has insisted that they did not resort to any network of shell companies to receive undeclared funds, and she has stressed that, when the company received money from other companies, those amounts were used immediately to cover existing debts. She has also specified that the tax years subject to this proceeding are 2016, 2017 and 2019, periods in which they were not yet married.
Accusation of multimillion-euro tax fraud
According to the Public Prosecutor's indictment, the businessman would have defrauded the Tax Agency of nearly 1.4 million euros corresponding to the years 2016, 2017 and 2019. In those years he filed personal income tax returns showing a negative result, which led the Tax Office to refund him almost 5,000 euros.
However, according to the Prosecution, in that same period the defendant received other income that was not included in his declarations, channeled through companies based in Panama. Between 2017 and 2019 he would have collected more than 2 million euros from those entities.
In addition, he would have received other sums from a company domiciled in Angola, from bank accounts opened in Korea, and from employment income in the Netherlands and Korea, which together would exceed 300,000 euros. Added to this would be other "unjustified" income deposited in accounts in Korea, the Netherlands, and Spain, for more than 425,000 euros, as well as "hidden" movable capital income for an amount close to 40,000 euros.
For these facts, the Prosecution attributes three offenses against the Public Treasury to him and requests a total of 10 years in prison for him, in addition to the imposition of fines amounting to 3 million euros.
The trial will continue this Tuesday and Wednesday with the testimony of new witnesses and experts, and will conclude with the appearance of the accused himself, who will be the last to testify.