A former executive of Hanjin Shipping Co. has been accused of having set up paper companies in overseas tax havens.

The Korea Center for Investigative Journalism, locally known as Newstapa, on Thursday released the eighth batch of names of Koreans engaged in founding and operating ghost companies.

According to the press organization, former managing director Kim Young-so became one of two owners of a ghost company called Rhodes International Ltd. on Sept. 6, 2001, in the Independent State of Samoa, a tax haven in the South Pacific Ocean.

The other documented owner was the now-deceased Cho Yong-min, the former chief executive of Hanjin Shipping Holdings.

The KCIJ claimed that Kim ― then executive of Hanjin Shipping’s Southwest Asian operation ― and Cho together acquired the Samoan paper company from broker company PTN.

While Kim denied any involvement of Cho, the KCIJ said that Kim had been Cho’s right-hand aide.

PTN also revealed have brokered the establishment of three paper companies for Korea Deposit Insurance Corp., a state-controlled body under the corporate jurisdiction of the Financial Services Commission.

The tax haven controversy involving KDIC has been snowballing since previous allegations, when the state company had been accused of setting up a paper company in the British Virgin Islands.

This time, the KDIC was found to have set up three more ghost companies in Labuan, a federal territory in East Malaysia.

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)