Of the legacy left by the late Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee, 1 trillion won was donated to Korea's medical business, thus keeping the deceased's promise to appear privately 13 years ago.
Chairman Lee Kun-hee's family announced today (28th) through Samsung Electronics that they will donate KRW 700 billion for research related to the construction of a hospital dedicated to infectious diseases, and KRW 300 billion for child patients such as childhood cancer and rare diseases, for medical contributions. .
The bereaved family members explained that the donation was the most consistent with the purpose of giving back to society promised by the deceased in his lifetime, and that the decision was made in order to inherit the maintenance of President Lee Kun-hee, who had a special interest in contributing to human society and the welfare of children.
Chairman Lee's promise to appear privately goes back to April 2008, 13 years ago.
At the time, when Lee was prosecuted by the special prosecutor team Joon-woong Cho on charges such as tax portal through a borrowed account, he said that he would withdraw from the position of Samsung chairman and convert all of his nominated assets to their real names.
He promised, "I will use the leftovers for'beneficial work' after paying fines and missing taxes among the borrowed-name properties that have been converted to real names."
A special prosecutor's investigation revealed the unused assets of KRW 4.5 trillion, of which it has been estimated to be worth 1 trillion won.
At the time of the announcement, Samsung only mentioned the use of money as'beneficial work', so how it will be used has attracted public attention.
Chairman Lee Kun-hoe, who was handed over to trial, was sentenced to five years of probation after three years in prison the following year, but four months after the sentence was confirmed, he received a special pardon for his activities to attract the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
Since then, various measures such as donating cash or stocks and establishing a foundation were reviewed through the Samsung Group's Future Strategy Office in relation to the return of'beneficial work', and the implementation was delayed.As Chairman Lee collapsed due to an acute myocardial infarction in 2014, related discussions ceased. That’s it.
Some people in the business world predicted that Chairman Lee Kun-hee's promise to appear privately will be made through the establishment of the foundation in the name of Chairman Lee, but it is said that the decision was made as a medical contribution in consideration of the importance of responding to infectious diseases, which emerged from the recent Corona 19 incident.
The 1 trillion won donated by the bereaved family of Chairman Lee Kun-hee is 700 billion won to respond to infectious diseases and 300 billion won to support children's patients.
Specifically, 500 billion won will be invested to build the'Central Infectious Disease Specialty Hospital', Korea's first infectious disease hospital.
This hospital is planned to be built in a scale of 150 beds equipped with advanced facilities such as general, critically ill, and high-pressure negative-pressure beds, negative-pressure surgery rooms, and biosafety testing rooms.
The remaining 200 billion won will be used as infrastructure for responding to infectious diseases, including the construction of state-of-the-art research centers at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases under the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, construction of necessary facilities, and support for research for the development of vaccines and treatments for infectious diseases.
Of the 300 billion won used for children's patients, 210 billion won is the cost for genetic testing and treatment, chemotherapy, and treatment of new drugs for rare diseases for children with difficult home conditions among children with childhood cancer and rare diseases for the next 10 years. I decided to use it.
We provide 150 billion won to support children with 13 types of childhood cancer such as leukemia and lymphoma, and 60 billion won for children with 14 rare diseases such as Crohn's disease.
A total of 17,000 children are expected to receive support over the next 10 years.
In addition, KRW 90 billion will be invested in clinical research for pediatric cancer and rare diseases, and establishment of infrastructure for research on treatments.
The surviving family members formed a committee with Seoul National University Children's Hospital as the lead organization to run a project to support children with childhood cancer and rare diseases.
The committee decided to encourage children's hospitals to participate in the project so that children across the country can receive tests and treatments at hospitals in each region, and to select child patients in need of assistance through registration.
In 2008, Chairman Lee Kun-hee's promise to make private appearances in 2008, which he was willing to use for'beneficial work', was made in 13 years with this donation, but this is not the first time that Chairman Lee's family has made a large-scale private appearance.
Chairman Lee apologized for the controversy over the issue of donating Everland Convertible Bonds (CB) in 2006 and the suspicion of providing political funding to the Ministry of Security and Security'X-Files', and dedicated a total of KRW 800 billion to society without conditions.
The'Samsung Gorn Opportunity Scholarship Foundation' was launched in 2006 to support children and adolescents of the underprivileged in 2006 based on this social rehabilitation fund, and it was renamed the'Samsung Dream Scholarship Foundation' in 2010 and continues to operate.