The prosecutors are also investigating Lee on allegations of embezzlement, hiding assets overseas and lying under oath during a parliamentary hearing.
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Wearing civilian clothes and handcuffed, Lee avoided answering reporters’ questions and headed straight to the office after getting out of an escort van that traveled from a detention center in Uiwang, south of Seoul, where Lee was detained. He will remain there because of the arrest warrant, the publication said. According to Bloomberg, it may take up to 18 months for a trial and verdict. In that instance, a court in Seoul ruled that there was not enough evidence of bribery to arrest him.
“It is acknowledged that it is necessary to arrest (Lee Jae-Yong) in light of a newly added criminal charge and new evidence”, a court spokesman said in a statement. Samsung also funded a huge amount of money to Choi’s company in Germany that financed equestrian training of Choi’s daughter.
President Park was impeached in December past year as part of a corruption scandal.
Prosecutors have focused on Samsung’s relationship with Ms Park, 65, accusing the tech giant of paying bribes totalling 43 billion won (S$98 million) to organisations linked to her friend Choi Soon Sil to secure government backing for the controversial 2015 merger of two Samsung units. The merger strengthened the Lee family’s control over Samsung.
Samsung Group’s arrested Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee is now facing expanded charges, South Korean Supreme Prosecutors’ Office (SPO) confirmed on Friday.
Lee Jae Yong joins Samsung Board, officially appointed as member of the Board of Directors. Other top South Korean companies are also under investigation. His grandfather, Lee Byung-chul, was the founder of the Samsung Group, and had faced smuggling charges but was not arrested.
The judge rejected the prosecution’s request to arrest Samsung Electronics President Park Sang-jin. Lee was called into court for 15 hours of questioning on Monday, Bloomberg said. Investigators bolstered their case ahead of the start of the hearing into the latest request Thursday, including with added charges related to concealing illegal profits and transferring assets overseas.
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Samsung, which is the world’s manufacturer of smartphones and memory chips, declined to comment, even as the overall impact is still being figured out.
