Prosecutors to decide on Samsung heir’s arrest
SOUTH Korean prosecutors investigating a major influencepeddling scandal involving impeached President Park Geunhye said they would decide today whether to arrest the heir to the giant Samsung group over alleged bribery.
Lee Jae-yong, Samsung Electronics vice chairman and the son of the group’s current chairman Lee Kun-hee, is accused of approving a decision to pay Park’s secret confidante Choi Soon-sil large sums of money to secure favourable decisions.
The junior Lee was quizzed through Thursday and Friday as a criminal suspect, and three other senior Samsung executives were also questioned.
“We will reach a decision on Monday . . . on whether or not to arrest Lee by taking into account the complexity and the significance of the issue,” Lee Kyu-chul, spokesman for a special team of prosecutors probing the scandal, said yesterday.
The prosecutors had planned to make the decision yesterday but legal deliberations took longer than expected “due to the significance of the move”, Lee told a televised briefing.
The scandal centres on Choi, who is accused of using her close friendship to the president to coerce top Seoul firms into “donating” nearly $70 million dollars to two nonprofit foundations which Choi then allegedly used for personal gain.
Samsung – the biggest contributor to the foundations – is a lso accused of separately providing millions of euros to Choi to bankroll her daughter’s equestrian tra ining in Germany.