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브레이크뉴스 문홍철 기자= 국내 500대 기업이 국내외 규제 당국으로부터 받은 제재금액이 지난 2023년 2248억원 수준으로, 2년 전에 비해 1/4 수준으로 급감한 것으로 나타났다. 특히, 공정거래위원회 제재 규모가 10분의 1 수준으로 줄었다.
지난해 제재 금액 ‘톱3’는 신한은행, 영원무역, 하나은행이 차지했다. 공정위 규제는 줄었지만, 금융당국 규제 강도는 여전했기 때문이다.
24일 CEO스코어에 따르면 매출 기준 500대 기업 중 최근 3년간 제재현황을 공시한 236개사를 대상으로 2021년부터 2023년까지 제재현황을 조사한 결과, 지난해 이들 기업(해외 종속법인 포함)이 국내외 규제당국에서 받은 제재금액은 총 2248억원으로 집계됐다.
이는 2021년 9302억원에 비해 75.8%나 줄어든 것이고, 전년도 4665억원에 비해서도 51.8%나 감소한 수치다.
같은 기간 국내 규제 당국의 제재금 규모는 △2021년 7527억원 △2022년 3651억원 △2023년 1661억원으로 줄었다. 또한, 해외 규제 당국의 제재금은 △2021년 1774억원 △2022년 1014억원 △2023년 587억원으로 줄었다.
지난 3년간 해외 제재금 누적규모를 보면 브라질이 1724억원으로 가장 많았고, 미국 735억원, 러시아 561억원 순이었다.
이 중에서도 국내 공정위의 제재금이 90% 가량 줄어, 감소폭이 가장 컸다. 조사 결과, 지난 2021년 3881억원에 달했던 공정위 제재금액은 2022년 2351억원으로 줄고, 지난해는 400억원 수준으로 무려 89.7%나 줄었다.
공정위의 최근 3년간 누적 제재금액은 6632억원으로, 국내 총 제재금액 1조2840억원의 절반이 넘는 51.7%를 차지했다.
공정위 제재금이 큰 폭으로 줄면서 다른 규제 당국의 제재 비중이 높아졌다. 지난 3년 기획재정부 산하 국세청‧관세청의 누적 제재규모는 4022억원(31.3%), 금융위원회‧금융감독원은 1108억원(8.6%)으로 집계됐다.
규제당국의 제재금 순위는 대기업 사외이사 선임 추이와도 궤를 같이 한다. 지난해 10월말 기준 국내 대기업집단의 관료 출신 사외이사 중 국세청(21.3%), 공정위(11.1%), 금감원(6.2%), 금융위(5.3%) 출신이 43.9%나 되는 것으로 집계됐다.
지난해 기업별 제재금은 신한은행이 336억원으로 가장 많았다. 이어 영원무역 199억원, 하나은행 196억원 순이었다. 신한은행은 미국 법인의 자금세탁방지 의무 규정 위반으로, 하나은행은 부실판매 등의 이유로 규제를 받았다.
지난 3년 누적으로는 현대제철이 1915억원으로 가장 많았다. 현대제철의 제재금액 중 1776억원(92.7%)은 공정위에서 받은 과징금이다. 대표적으로 2021년 ‘철스크랩 구매 기준가격의 변동폭, 시기 합의 및 실행’으로 910억원의 과징금을, 2022년 ‘조달청 발주 철근 입찰 담합에서 사전에 낙찰 물량을 배분하고 투찰가격을 합의’해 866억원의 과징금을 각각 부과받았다.
이어 삼성중공업이 1725억원의 제재금을 부과받아 뒤를 이었다. 이 중 대부분이 브라질 ‘Petrobras’사로부터 드릴십 3척을 수주하는 과정에서 발생한 선박중개인의 위법 행위와 관련, 2021년 브라질 당국과의 합의금 1724억원이 차지했다.
또한, 호텔롯데는 1541억원의 제재금을 부과받았는데 이는 대부분 국세청이 부과했다. 2021년 법인세 부분조사로 1541억원의 ‘2018 사업연도 법인세’ 등을 부과받았다.
다음으로 제재금액이 많은 아시아나항공은 제재금액 1289억원 중 1283억원(99.6%)이 국세청에서 부과됐다. 2021년 2월과 11월, 2022년 2월 정기 세무조사에서 각각 159억원, 973억원, 151억원의 추징금을 냈다.
삼성전자는 1021억원의 제재금액 중 1012억원(99.1%)이 공정위에서 부과됐다. 2021년 삼성웰스토리와의 단체급식 거래 관련 불공정거래행위 금지 위반으로 1012억원의 과징금을 냈다.
이 밖에도 동국홀딩스(964억원), 대한제강(638억원), 대한항공(561억원), 신한은행(418억원), NAVER(364억원) 순으로 각각 집계됐다. 이 중 동국홀딩스 960억원, 대한제강 637억원, NAVER 279억원의 과징금은 공정위에서 받은 것이다.
대한항공은 러시아 모스크바 세례메티예보 공항에서 자사 화물기가 세관 출항 허가 없이 출항해 561억원(1심 판결)을 부과받은 상태다.
제재금액이 100억원을 넘은 기업은 2021년 12곳에 달했으나 2022년 9곳, 2023년에는 7곳으로 감소했다.
break9874@naver.com
*아래는 위 기사를 '구글 번역'으로 번역한 영문 기사의 [전문]입니다. '구글번역'은 이해도 높이기를 위해 노력하고 있습니다. 영문 번역에 오류가 있을 수 있음을 전제로 합니다.<*The following is [the full text] of the English article translated by 'Google Translate'. 'Google Translate' is working hard to improve understanding. It is assumed that there may be errors in the English translation.>
Top 500 companies, last year's sanctions amounted to 224.8 billion won... a sharp decrease from 1/4 of 2 years ago.
Break News Reporter Moon Hong-cheol= The amount of sanctions received by the top 500 domestic companies from domestic and foreign regulatory authorities was found to be around 224.8 billion won in 2023, a sharp decrease of one-quarter compared to two years ago. In particular, the scale of Fair Trade Commission sanctions has been reduced to one-tenth.
Last year, the ‘top 3’ in terms of sanctions amount were Shinhan Bank, Youngone Trading, and Hana Bank. This is because although the Fair Trade Commission's regulations have decreased, the intensity of the financial authorities' regulations has remained the same.
According to CEO Score on the 24th, the results of a survey on the sanctions status from 2021 to 2023 targeting 236 companies among the top 500 companies based on sales that disclosed their sanctions status over the past three years showed that these companies (including overseas subsidiaries) were subject to domestic and foreign regulatory authorities last year. The total amount of sanctions received was calculated to be 224.8 billion won.
This is a 75.8% decrease compared to 930.2 billion won in 2021, and a 51.8% decrease compared to 466.5 billion won the previous year.
During the same period, the scale of domestic regulatory authorities' sanctions decreased from KRW 752.7 billion in 2021 to KRW 365.1 billion in 2022 and KRW 166.1 billion in 2023. In addition, sanctions from foreign regulatory authorities decreased from KRW 177.4 billion in 2021 to KRW 101.4 billion in 2022 and KRW 58.7 billion in 2023.
Looking at the cumulative amount of foreign sanctions over the past three years, Brazil had the largest amount at 172.4 billion won, followed by the United States at 73.5 billion won and Russia at 56.1 billion won.
Among these, domestic sanctions from the Fair Trade Commission decreased by about 90%, showing the largest decrease. As a result of the survey, the amount of sanctions imposed by the Fair Trade Commission, which reached 388.1 billion won in 2021, decreased to 235.1 billion won in 2022, and decreased by a whopping 89.7% to 40 billion won last year.
The cumulative amount of sanctions imposed by the Fair Trade Commission over the past three years was KRW 663.2 billion, accounting for 51.7%, or more than half, of the total domestic sanctions amount of KRW 1.284 trillion.
As the Fair Trade Commission's sanctions decreased significantly, the proportion of sanctions imposed by other regulatory authorities increased. Over the past three years, the cumulative sanctions of the National Tax Service and the Korea Customs Service under the Ministry of Strategy and Finance were KRW 402.2 billion (31.3%), and those of the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service were KRW 110.8 billion (8.6%).
The ranking of sanctions by regulatory authorities is also in line with the selection and trend of outside directors at large companies. As of the end of October last year, among the outside directors who were bureaucrats at large domestic conglomerates, 43.9% were from the National Tax Service (21.3%), the Fair Trade Commission (11.1%), the Financial Supervisory Service (6.2%), and the Financial Services Commission (5.3%).
Last year, Shinhan Bank had the largest amount of sanctions at 33.6 billion won. This was followed by Yeongwon Trading (KRW 19.9 billion), and Hana Bank (KRW 19.6 billion). Shinhan Bank was regulated for violating anti-money laundering obligations and regulations of an American corporation, and Hana Bank was regulated for reasons such as bad sales.
Accumulated over the past three years, Hyundai Steel had the largest amount at 191.5 billion won. Of the sanctions imposed on Hyundai Steel, 177.6 billion won (92.7%) is the fine received from the Fair Trade Commission. Representatively, in 2021, a fine of KRW 91 billion was imposed for ‘agreement and implementation of the fluctuation range of the standard price for purchasing steel scrap, and the timing and execution’, and in 2022, a fine of KRW 86.6 billion was imposed for ‘distributing the winning bid quantity in advance and agreeing on the bid price in the collusion of bids for rebar ordered by the Public Procurement Service.’ A fine was imposed on each.
Samsung Heavy Industries followed suit by being fined 172.5 billion won. Of these, most of them accounted for 172.4 billion won in settlements with Brazilian authorities in 2021 related to illegal acts by ship brokers that occurred in the process of receiving orders for three drill ships from the Brazilian company Petrobras.
In addition, Hotel Lotte was assessed a penalty of 154.1 billion won, most of which was imposed by the National Tax Service. As a result of the partial investigation of corporate tax in 2021, 154.1 billion won in ‘2018 fiscal year corporate tax’ was levied.
Asiana Airlines, which had the next largest amount of sanctions, had 128.3 billion won (99.6%) of the 128.9 billion won sanctioned by the National Tax Service. Additional fines of 15.9 billion won, 97.3 billion won, and 15.1 billion won were paid in regular tax audits in February, November 2021, and February 2022, respectively.
Of the 102.1 billion won in sanctions imposed on Samsung Electronics, 101.2 billion won (99.1%) was imposed by the Fair Trade Commission. In 2021, a fine of 101.2 billion won was paid for violating the ban on unfair trade practices related to group meal transactions with Samsung Welstory.
In addition, Dongkuk Holdings (KRW 96.4 billion), Daehan Steel (KRW 63.8 billion), Korean Air (KRW 56.1 billion), Shinhan Bank (KRW 41.8 billion), and NAVER (KRW 36.4 billion) were counted in that order. Of these, Dongkuk Holdings received a fine of 96 billion won, Daehan Steel 63.7 billion won, and NAVER 27.9 billion won in fines from the Fair Trade Commission.
Korean Air was fined 56.1 billion won (first trial ruling) after its cargo plane departed from Baptismyevo Airport in Moscow, Russia, without customs clearance.
The number of companies with sanctions exceeding 10 billion won reached 12 in 2021, but decreased to 9 in 2022 and 7 in 2023.
