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Prosecutors in South Korea are seeking a warrant for the arrest of Jay Y Lee, the acting head of Samsung (KRX:005930).
The special prosecutor’s office have accused Lee of paying 43 billion won (£30.14 million) worth of bribes to organisations linked to Choi Soon-sil, who is at the center of the corruption scandal, in order to secure the 2015 merger of two affiliates.
“The special prosecutor’s office, in making this decision to seek an arrest warrant, determined that while the country’s economic conditions are important, upholding justice takes precedence,” said Lee Kyu-chul, a spokesman for the office.
The department are hoping to charge Lee, who became the de facto head of the Samsung group after his father, Lee Kun-hee, suffered a heart attack in 2014, for bribery, embezzlement and perjury.
Lee has become the most recent name to be pulled into the corruption scandal linked to South Korea’s government and was questioned for a total of 22 hours last week.
Prosecutors are trying to establish if the money Samsung paid the President was connected to the decision to approve a controversial $8bn merger of two Samsung group affiliates back in 2015.
“It is difficult to understand the special prosecution’s decision,” the firm said in a statement. “We cannot accept the special prosecutors’ argument that there were unlawful favours related to the merger or the leadership succession.”
A spokesman for the special prosecutor’s office acknowledged the arrest of Mr Lee could be damaging for Samsung, but added “while the country’s economic conditions are important, upholding justice takes precedence”
This isn’t the first embarrassment for Samsung in recent months. In 2016, the tech company’s reputation was damaged by fire accidents involving its faulty Galaxy Note 7 smartphone as well as accidents caused by faulty washing machines.
Lee is scheduled to appear at the Seoul central district court on Wednesday morning, which will decide whether to grant the arrest warrant.