South Korean prosecutors yesterday summoned Samsung Electronics Co vice chairman Jay Y. Lee for questioning in an investigation into alleged accounting fraud and a controversial 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates, dealing another legal blow to the country’s largest corporation.
While expected, the decision marked a deepening of a long-running probe into the billionaire scion and his shipbuilding-to-smartphones Samsung Group conglomerate.
The company’s de facto leader was called into Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office at 8am in relation to allegations over illegal acts in succession plans, the Yonhap News Agency reported.
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Lee has been at the center of a years-long scandal and graft trial that inflamed long-standing resentments against South Korea’s most influential family-run conglomerates. He faces renewed charges of using gifts of expensive horses to win favor from the previous South Korean administration, which he has denied.
The legal fight has disrupted his tenure at the helm of Samsung Electronics, the world’s leading producer of smartphones and memory chips. This month, the billionaire took the unusual step of apologizing for his role in the controversy, pledging his children would never run the conglomerate.
The probe, which is separate from the corruption trial, centers on whether there were illegal acts during a merger between Samsung C&T Corp and Cheil Industries — the conglomerate’s de facto holding company.
That deal was regarded as an effort to cement Lee’s control over the conglomerate, which he has run since his father suffered a heart attack in 2014.
Prosecutors are also likely to interrogate the heir about allegations of financial fraud at Samsung Biologics Co. The office has not brought any charges in the case so far. A Samsung Electronics spokeswoman declined to comment on Tuesday.
Samsung Biologics denied the allegations and said its books were examined by external accounting firms.
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