Over the controversial merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, South Korean prosecutors indicted the heir to the Samsung empire, Lee Jae-yong who had committed stock manipulation and breach of trust when the two companies merged back in 2015. Former top executives and ten other executives of the company are also charged, the prosecutors said.
Lee, Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics and his subordinates, has carried out various unfair transactions which have damaged other shareholder’s interest and had “a systemic scheme to take control of the Samsung Group with the least cost”, said the prosecution. Already, Lee is separately re-tried on the charges of bribery, various offences, embezzlement and corruption scandals that brought down former South Korean President, Park Geun-hye.
The flagship subsidiary of the group, Samsung Electronics was founded by Lee’s grandfather, and it has grown so far to become the most giant family-controlled conglomerates which can dominate business in the world’s 12th-largest economy and its turnover is equivalent to a fifth of South Korea’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
In the April-July period, the firm has seen profits with moving data centres to stockpile DRAM chips for meeting demands of online activities during the pandemic. But, the South Korean economy shrank by 3.2 per cent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, according to the estimation of the Central Bank of Korea.