Samsung also signed an million contract with Choi through her sports management company in Germany. The impeachment must be upheld or overturned by the Constitutional Court.
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Last December, the South Korean parliament impeached the president over the scandal.
– Widely expected to take overall control of Samsung once his 74-year-old father steps down.
And Mr Lee also confirmed the firm gave a horse and money to help the equestrian career of Ms Choi’s daughter, Chung Yoo-ra, something he said he now regretted.
Lee, the vice chairman of flagship affiliate Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, has managed South Korea’s top conglomerate after his father and founding patriarch Lee Kun-hee was incapacitated after a May 2014 heart attack. Samsung officials have apparently testified that they only provided the financial support because it was “an area of interest for a VIP” and that they had no idea about the connection with Choi Sun-sil. The team of special prosecutors has also acquired evidence that the Blue House was heavily involved in the Samsung merger.
Shortly after state prosecutors indicted Choi in November on charges of coercion, President Park was named as an accomplice, but was not charged. Last month, lawmakers voted to impeach President Park Geun-hye. Investigators are probing whether Samsung’s payments to the foundations were made in return for South Korea’s pension fund’s decision to support a major merger deal between two Samsung subsidiaries in 2015.
When Mr Lee reached the office Thursday morning, a large number of people received him chanting “arrest Lee immediately”. According to the “Wall Street Journal”, Elliot spent $1 billion to acquire a 7.1 percent stake in Samsung C&T and said that the merger vastly undervalued shares of Samsung C&T so a deal would go through that benefited the Lee family.
Activists urged special prosecutors to arrest Lee, saying that he was guilty of robbing the public pension without regard for minority shareholders’ interests.
It was the first time in nine years that Lee became a subject of a criminal investigation.
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As a result, the independent counsel asked the parliamentary panel to file a formal complaint against Lee for committing perjury so that it could open an investigation into whether the Samsung scion lied about the conversations.
