Mr. Lee holds the place of vice chairman at Samsung. The corporate is ingrained within the on a regular basis lifetime of South Korea via a sprawling array of companies that embody electronics, monetary providers, heavy manufacturing and extra. His household controls Samsung via a sequence of authorized and monetary preparations among the many conglomerate’s many arms.
On Tuesday, prosecutors formally indicted Mr. Lee once more on prison costs stemming from a merger of two Samsung associates in 2015 that helped him enhance his management over the complete Samsung empire, together with its crown jewel, Samsung Electronics.
Prosecutors additionally indicted 10 different present and former Samsung officers, together with former high executives Choi Gee-sung and Kim Jong-joong, who had been additionally accused of participating in stock-price manipulation, unfair buying and selling and audit-rule violations as a part of a scientific effort to assist switch the managerial management of Samsung from Mr. Lee’s father to his son, now 52.
Such efforts culminated within the 2015 merger of the 2 Samsung associates, Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries Inc., prosecutors stated.
Based on prosecutors, Mr. Lee and his lieutenants conspired to decrease the worth of Samsung C&T and inflate that of Cheil Industries forward of their merger. As a part of their plot, prosecutors stated, the Samsung executives had been additionally dedicated accounting fraud to inflate the worth of Samsung Biologics, a subsidiary of Cheil Industries.
Within the 2015 merger, one share of Cheil Industries was traded for about three shares of Samsung C&T. The deal helped Mr. Lee enormously, prosecutors say.
Earlier than the merger, Mr. Lee was the biggest shareholder of Cheil Industries, with a virtually one-quarter possession stake. He owned no share of Samsung C&T. The inflated worth of Cheil Industries gave Mr. Lee an even bigger share within the firm created via the merger than prosecutors stated he deserved. The corporate created via the merger, additionally named Samsung C&T, is a linchpin in controlling the complete conglomerate.
