Reports say that the South Korean prosecutors are investigating a corruption scandal, which leads into seeking an arrest warrant of the acting head of Samsung, Lee Jae-yong, 48. Lee is the Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics and he was accused of paying multi-million dollar bribe to a friend, President Park Geun-hye.
The Special Counsel Park Young-soo said that the team is trying to get an arrest warrant for Lee after lying under oath, embezzlement, perjury and bribery. Lee was said to have paid bribes amounting to more than $36 million to the friend of the impeached president Choi Soon-sil for business good-turn favors, which was revealed in exchange for approval of a merger of two Samsung Group affiliates in 2015.
These Samsung Group affiliates are Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T. The two companies merged and became one of the largest investors in Samsung Electronics. The South Korea central district court will hold a hearing on Wednesday morning to settle on whether to approve the prosecutors' request.
The 64-year old Park is currently suspended from the office amidst impeachment proceedings. Park will be the first democratic leader to be impeached due to corruption scandal being heard in the court. Park has denied any allegations that Choi fraudulently received millions of dollars from the merger of two companies.
According to The Korea Herald, the team investigation will be wrapped up at the end of February and it might be extended for a month. The investigation team is preparing to request another warrant of arrest. The original request was rejected due to the circumstantial evidence and it was not enough reason to put Lee behind bars.
Lee was put into question for 22 hours and prosecutors are finding links if the money that Samsung Group paid Choi was connected to a 2015 decision by the National Pension Service (NPS) to approve the merger. The Samsung head left the Seoul Detention Centre carrying a white shopping bag and the Spokesman Lee Kyu-chul unveiled that the prosecutors were unconvinced that Lee was a victim of coercion due to pressure from Park.
