On the 19th, Lee Jae-yong, Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics, who returned from a 2-night, 3-day business trip to China, is entering a temporary living facility set up at Hotel Marina Bay Seoul in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, for a COVID-19 test. Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@
[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] The prosecution investigating allegations related to the merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries has completed the second summons interrogation of Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong (52) after 17 hours and 30 minutes.
With the conclusion of the summons interrogation of Vice Chairman Lee, the prosecution's investigation, which has continued for one year and six months since the Financial Services Commission's Securities and Futures Commission filed a complaint against Samsung BioLogics (Samsung Bio) in November 2018, is expected to enter its final phase.
According to the prosecution on the 30th, the Economic Crime Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Bok-hyun) summoned Vice Chairman Lee for the second time yesterday morning and interrogated him from around 8:20 a.m. to 8:50 p.m. on the same day. This was three days after the first summons interrogation on the 26th. As with the first summons, Vice Chairman Lee reviewed the interrogation records for about five hours with his lawyers and returned home around 2 a.m. that day.
During the first interrogation, which lasted about 17 hours, Vice Chairman Lee strongly denied the allegations, stating that he "never ordered or was informed" about the accounting fraud committed by Samsung Bio during the 2015 merger process of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries.
Therefore, the second interrogation by the prosecution likely focused on parts of Vice Chairman Lee's testimony from the first interrogation that required additional verification, as well as contradictions between his statements and those of key aides such as former Samsung Future Strategy Office Chief Choi Ji-sung and Deputy General Manager Jang Choong-ki, who were previously interrogated by the prosecution.
After reviewing the results of the interrogation, the prosecution is expected to decide whether to summon Vice Chairman Lee once more for further questioning or to conclude the investigation with these two interrogations. Subsequently, decisions regarding the legal status of the top executives involved in the merger process of the two companies will be made, followed by judicial proceedings.
The prosecution has conducted the investigation on the premise that the merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries and the accounting fraud at Samsung Bio were all carried out to ensure a stable succession of management rights for Vice Chairman Lee. On the other hand, Samsung has maintained that the Samsung C&T merger was conducted through legitimate procedures and that Samsung Bio did not inflate the value of its bio business through accounting fraud.
If the prosecution indicts Vice Chairman Lee, the verdict in the trial will likely hinge on whether the prosecution can prove with objective evidence that Vice Chairman Lee was informed of and tacitly approved the series of processes, especially the illegal measures such as accounting fraud.
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