Haitai denies suspicions of inflating sales figures to boost share price

• Published date: 07 March 2023
• Publication title: The Korea Times

Haitai Confectionary and Foods is suspected of inflating sales performance figures by billions of won between 2016 and 2017, raising suspicions that it manipulated information intentionally to jack up its stock price. The head office denied the suspicions, blaming "regional sales offices" for the irregularities.

According to industry sources, tax authorities found out last year that some of Haitai's sales offices issued abnormally large amounts of sales and tax statements to inflate their sales figures between 2016 and 2017 and offloaded the amount on wholesalers.

Local media reported, Monday, that a wholesaler received a notification from the tax agency last month that he will be taxed an additional 28 million won ($21,556) due to Haitai's action. He was told by the tax agency that a fraudulent transaction was spotted in the 2017 data and that additional taxes will be imposed as a result. Many other wholesalers dealing with Haitai are also facing similar taxes.

Haitai acknowledged that there were attempts to inflate sales among those related to the group.

"We confirmed that some regional sales offices went further with greed to...