Samsung vice president and heir Lee Jae-yong is currently facing a new trial (Reuters)
Seoul:
South Korean prosecutors have asked for an arrest warrant against Samsung vice president and heir Lee Jae-yong in an investigation into the controversial merger of two Samsung units in 2015, their office said on Thursday.
Lee is vice president of Samsung Electronics – the world‘s largest smartphone maker – and was jailed for five years in 2017 for corruption, embezzlement and other offenses in a scandal that brought down President South -Korean Park Geun-hye.
The 51-year-old man was released a year later on appeal but is currently under review.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office said it was looking for an arrest warrant against Lee, suspected of having been involved in price manipulation and illegal trade in the 2015 merger of Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T .
The move was seen as a crucial step in ensuring a smooth third-generation power transfer to Lee, a descendant of the founding family of Samsung.
He has been criticized by many who have said that he deliberately dumped the shares of Samsung C&T, but at the time, the Seoul National Pension Service (NPS) – a major shareholder of Samsung – voted in favor of the agreement, which ultimately came to fruition.
The prosecution also asked for an arrest warrant against two former Samsung executives for their role in the merger, he said in his statement.
The request comes weeks after Lee apologized for a plan that would have seen him rise to the head of the group and vow to end the family succession.
Samsung is by far the largest of the family conglomerates, or chaebols, that dominate business in the 12th largest economy in the world.
Its global turnover is equivalent to one fifth of the national gross domestic product, which makes it crucial to the economic health of South Korea.
(This story has not been edited by GalacticGaming staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
