Samsung Group leader Jay Y. Lee yesterday appeared at the South Korean special prosecutor’s office for questioning on suspicion of bribery in an influence-peddling scandal that might force suspended South Korean President Park Geun-hye from office.
The country’s top conglomerate has become important in the investigation of Park, who was impeached by the South Korean National Assembly last month over the corruption scandal. She would be the country’s first democratically elected leader to be removed from office early if the South Korean Constitutional Court upholds the impeachment.
Park has denied wrongdoing.
Photo: Reuters
“I am very sorry to the South Korean people for not showing a better side,” Lee told reporters as he arrived at the office in a black South Korean-made Ssangyong sedan, greeted by protesters holding signs calling for his arrest and accusing him of being the president’s accomplice.
The legislature impeached Park over allegations she allowed a friend, Choi Soon-sil, to exert inappropriate influence over state affairs.
Choi is accused of colluding with Park to pressure big businesses, including the Samsung Group, to contribute to nonprofit foundations backing the president’s initiatives.
Choi, on trial on charges of abuse of power and attempted fraud, has denied wrongdoing.
Prosecutors on Wednesday named Lee a suspect and are investigating whether Samsung gave 30 billion won (US$25.44 million) to a business and foundations backed by Choi in exchange for the national pension fund’s support for a 2015 merger of Samsung C&T Corp and Cheil Industries Inc.
Lee has denied bribery.
Wearing a dark suit, white shirt and dark red tie, Lee bowed after making brief remarks to reporters.
Proving improper dealings between Park, or her confidant Choi, and Samsung would be key for the prosecutors’ case, analysts said, adding their goal is to prove Park or her surrogates such as Choi took bribes from corporations in exchange for favors.
The prosecution spokesman on Wednesday would not rule out the possibility of investigators seeking an arrest warrant for Lee, 48, who last month denied accusations that the conglomerate sought to curry the favor of Park or Choi to secure the 2015 merger, a deal seen as critical to ensuring his control of the conglomerate.
Investigators questioned two senior Samsung Group executives this week as witnesses.
The scandal has triggered weekly rallies calling for Park to step down.
She has apologized and this month said that the pension fund’s support for the Samsung companies’ merger was in the nation’s interest.
If Park were to leave office, a presidential election would be held within 60 days. Among the expected contenders is former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.
Lee took over as leader of the conglomerate after his father, founding family patriarch Lee Kun-hee, had a heart attack in 2014.
Jay Y. Lee’s arrest or indictment would be a blow to Samsung and the family, which has been streamlining its business to ensure a stable transfer of control from the ailing Lee Kun-hee to his children.
BEYOND WASHINGTON: Although historically the US has been the partner of choice for military exercises, Jakarta has been trying to diversify its partners, an analyst said Indonesia’s first joint military drills with Russia this week signal that new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto would seek a bigger role for Jakarta on the world stage as part of a significant foreign policy shift, analysts said. Indonesia has long maintained a neutral foreign policy and refuses to take sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict or US-China rivalry, but Prabowo has called for stronger ties with Moscow despite Western pressure on Jakarta. “It is part of a broader agenda to elevate ties with whomever it may be, regardless of their geopolitical bloc, as long as there is a benefit for Indonesia,” said Pieter
US ELECTION: Polls show that the result is likely to be historically tight. However, a recent Iowa poll showed Harris winning the state that Trump won in 2016 and 2020 US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris courted voters angered by the Gaza war while former US President and Republican candidate Donald Trump doubled down on violent rhetoric with a comment about journalists being shot as the tense US election campaign entered its final hours. The Democratic vice president and the Republican former president frantically blitzed several swing states as they tried to win over the last holdouts with less than 36 hours left until polls open on election day today. Trump predicted a “landslide,” while Harris told a raucous rally in must-win Michigan that “we have momentum — it’s
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
TIGHT CAMPAIGN: Although Harris got a boost from an Iowa poll, neither candidate had a margin greater than three points in any of the US’ seven battleground states US Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in the final days before the election, as she and former US president and Republican presidential nominees make a frantic last push to win over voters in a historically close campaign. The first lines Harris spoke as she sat across from Maya Rudolph, their outfits identical, was drowned out by cheers from the audience. “It is nice to see you Kamala,” Harris told Rudolph with a broad grin she kept throughout the sketch. “And I’m just here to remind you, you got this.” In sync, the two said supporters