South Korea seeks arrest of Samsung heir in graft scandal

In a departure from the leniency typically given to South Korean big businesses, prosecutors yesterday requested the arrest of the de facto head of Samsung Electronics, the country’s most valuable company, in an influence-peddling scandal that has toppled the country’s president

Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman at Samsung Electronics

Seoul: In a departure from the leniency typically given to South Korean big businesses, prosecutors yesterday requested the arrest of the de facto head of Samsung Electronics, the country’s most valuable company, in an influence-peddling scandal that has toppled the country’s president.

Lee Jae-yong (48), vice chairman at Samsung Electronics, faces allegations of embezzlement, of lying under oath during a parliamentary hearing and of offering a bribe of 43 billion won ($36 million) to a long-time friend of impeached
President Park Geun-hye, according to Lee Kyu-chul, a spokesman for a special prosecutors’ team investigating the political scandal.

Prosecutors understood worries that Lee’s arrest could hurt the economy, but “we believed that it was even more important to carry out justice,” Kyu-chul, the spokesman at the special prosecutors’ team, told reporters.

A Seoul court said it will review the prosecutors’ request on Wednesday. The request takes two to three days to review, according to a Seoul court official in charge of arrest warrants.

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