Prosecutors look to arrest Samsung Biologics chief executive amid accounting probe

Prosecutors in South Korea have asked a court to grant an arrest warrant against the chief executive of Samsung Biologics after an accounting scandal shook the business, Korean news agency Yonhap has reported. 

Prosecutors suspect that chief executive Kim Tae-han ordered employees to destroy evidence around accounting fraud at the company, Yonhap reported, citing the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office.

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The news comes less than two weeks after a court approved arrest warrants for two senior executives at Samsung Electronics on similar charges.

Korea's Financial Services Commission last year said that Biologics broke accounting rules in the run-up to listing in 2016 in a bid to inflate its value.

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Critics have charged the company with changing the way it valued a stake in a joint venture.

Samsung Electronics still holds around a third of Biologics' shares.