Squid Game star Lee Byung Hun denies tax evasion allegations after being fined over Rs. 62 lakhs; actor’s agency releases official statement

Popular South Korean actor Lee Byung Hun, who was last seen in K-dramas Squid Game and Our Blues, has denied the tax evasion allegations made against him. The actor’s agency BH Entertainment has officially released a statement denying such accusations.

Squid Game star Lee Byung Hun denies tax evasion allegations after being fined over Rs. 62 lakhs; actor’s agency releases official statement

Reports in Korean media outlets revealed that a special tax audit was conducted by the National Tax Service on Lee Byung Hun and his agency BH Entertainment in September 2022. They were reportedly fined hundreds of millions of won (approx Rs. 62 lakhs) in additional taxes.

Furthermore, the reports also revealed that Lee Byung Hun had purchased a 10-story building in the neighbourhood of Yangpyeong in Seoul. He allegedly sold the building in 2021 and earned a whopping profit of around 10 billion KRW (approximately $7.6 million).

A representative from BH Entertainment released an official statement on February 28, as translated by media outlet Soompi, “Actor Lee Byung Hun has not had one shameful incident regarding taxes in the past 30 years. The additional fee collected was due to the differences in the deposit time for an advertising guarantee and in the process of accounting normalization for bonuses paid to all employees with the actor’s own personal expenses that were processed as company expenses.”