Seoul (AFP)
The heir to the South Korean giant Samsung Lee Jae-yong appeared Monday in a Seoul court called to rule on his detention in the investigation into the controversial merger of two subsidiaries of the group which was to promote his takeover slowly.
Vice-president of Samsung Electronics, Mr. Lee is also being tried for corruption in the resounding scandal which led to the dismissal and the conviction of the ex-South Korean president Park Geun-hye.
Dressed in a dark suit, a mask on his face due to the coronavirus, the heir to the largest South Korean conglomerate did not answer questions from reporters upon his arrival at the Seoul court.
This hearing is separate from its new trial, but it adds to a cascade of setbacks that have plagued Samsung in recent years.
The Seoul prosecution announced on Thursday that it had requested an arrest warrant against Lee Jae-yong, who is suspected of price manipulation during the controversial merger of two Samsung units, Cheil Industries and C&T, in 2015.
This operation, capital for the succession at the head of the group, had been denounced by certain shareholders, who believed that C&T had been deliberately undervalued. But the National Pension Fund, large shareholder of Samsung under the supervision of the Ministry of Social Affairs, supported it.
Grandson of Samsung founder Lee Jae-Yong became the group's de facto boss after his father's heart attack in 2014.
Mr. Lee was the majority shareholder in Cheil Industries, and critics of the merger say that Samsung sought to artificially lower the price of C&T in order to give it a larger stake in the new entity that was born out of the merger of the two and which was a important component of Samsung's structure. This would have allowed him to consolidate his grip on the conglomerate.
In a statement, the group said the allegations of price manipulation were "unfounded", adding that Mr. Lee had not been involved in "any illegal activity".
At the beginning of May, Lee Jae-yong had apologized for the scandals and cases that plagued the world's leading manufacturer of smartphones.
The group was founded in 1938 by Lee Jae-yong's grandfather, who promised he would be the last in the line of family succession.
He was sentenced in 2017 to five years in prison as part of the corruption scandal that had killed Park Geun-hye. The 51-year-old leader was released a year later. But her case is currently the subject of a new trial.
The turnover of the Samsung group alone represents one fifth of the GDP of South Korea, the 12th largest economy in the world, hence its considerable political and economic weight.
© 2020 AFP