The understanding of Australian consumer and human relations laws in Australia and New Zealand by LG Electronics management, which is top heavy with Korean management, is being questioned today following recent allegations by their former head of Human resources in Australia, and the shocking revelations recently that their former South Korean Country Manager in New Zealand, engaged in a criminal offence in an effort to destroy information at the request of Australian management following an investigation into price fixing by the New Zealand Commerce Commission.

Recently the South Korean Companies former Country Manager in New Zealand, who reported to Australian management pleaded guilty to destroying documentation relating to an investigation by the NZ Commerce Commission into the price fixing of TV’s.

While the investigation into price fixing came to nothing the actions of LG management were labelled a crime with questions raised about the actions of LG Electronics Australian management team in the affair.

ChannelNews can reveal that the previous Country Manager of LG New Zealand, Dowan Kim, and two staff members pleaded guilty in New Zealand to criminal charges after material requested by the Commission, was destroyed during their investigation into potential anti-competitive conduct of the New Zealand operation of LG Electronics and LG Electronics Australia pay Ltd

LG’s actions came unstuck when a whistleblower tipped off the Commission that What’s App messages between senior management and Harvey Norman management had been deliberately deleted.

They were also alerted to messaging between NZ and Australian LG Electronics management.

Evidence reveals that Kim gave instruction to delete the messages following a call from an “offshore senior manager” the NZ Commission claims.

Kim claims that he merely passed on the instruction to delete messages from the offshore senior manager who ChannelNews understands resided in Australia.

As a result of the direction, two staff members deleted various WhatsApp messages with customers.

Commission Chairperson John Small said it was a blatant attempt to obstruct the investigation, some of the messages were later recovered.

We can also reveal that at one stage LG management instructed an account manager at Harvey Norman to clean their phones of the messages between LG management and the retailer before they were collected and cloned by the Commerce Commission.

ChannelNews is not accusing Harvey Norman of any wrong doing.

Yesterday we revealed that the former Director of Human Resources at LG Electronics Australia Amanda Jackson, has mounted a case in the Federal Court against the Company and it’s Managing Director Dan Lim for ‘unduly bullying and harassing her” during the execution of her job.

She has also claimed that LG Electronics Korean management, discriminates against Australians in favour of Korean employees and that head of LG Electronics Australian operation covered up an investigation into Korean employee Eun Sung Cha, for allegedly engaging in misconduct.

She claims that management were aware of the issuing of “unauthorised employment references” issued on LG letterhead by a member of LG’s air conditioning staff for the purposes of supporting another person’s visa application to the Department of Home Affairs with her investigation apparently shut down by Lim.

The investigation of LG in New Zealand is not the first time that LG has fallen foul of consumer laws and regulators.

At one stage in Australia the business was prevented following orders in the Federal Court of Australia, of issuing press releases or marketing material without the material being vetted by lawyers after the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission accused LG Electronics of misleading representations to two consumers, the local business was fined $160,000.

The need for legal vetting lasted for three years before they could be trusted to publish information that was not misleading.

Last year senior marketing staff at LG openly lied to ChannelNews over the exit of a former long serving executive who had been terminated.

In the New Zealand case which resulted in senior management being charged with criminal offences the same management instructed the deletion of material the day after LG received correspondence from the Commission legally requesting documentation.

Commission Chair Dr John Small said the conduct showed a blatant disregard for the Commission’s processes and the law.

Small claimed the questionable conduct of LG management was sufficiently serious enough for the charges to be filed under the NZ Crimes Act.

The Commission filed criminal charges after evidence showed Mr Kim instructed former LG Key Account Manager, Nicholas Clarke, and another staff member, who has permanent name suppression, to delete any messages that might be considered an “issue”.

Kim pleaded guilty to a charge under the Crimes Act of wilfully attempting to obstruct the course of justice.

Kim was discharged without conviction, following an assessment of his individual circumstances.

Mr Clarke and the other staff member pleaded guilty to offences of failing to comply with a statutory notice, in breach of the Commerce Act.

Following assessments of the individual circumstances of Mr Clarke and the other staff member, both were granted discharges without conviction.

The Commission’s investigation into potential anti-competitive conduct in the supply of televisions concluded with the Commission issuing a compliance letter to LG and a warning to Panasonic who no longer sells TVs in Australia or New Zealand.