South Korean court denies arrest warrant request for Samsung leader
A court in South Korea has today denied a request for an arrest warrant for Samsung Group heir Jay Y. Lee, after prosecutors sought to charge him with accounting fraud and stock manipulation.
Prosecutors had requested an arrest warrant for Lee last week as part of a probe into a controversial 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates, valued at $8bn.
Lee had previously been jailed for about one year until February 2018 for his role in a bribery scandal. He was accused of giving horses to the daughter of a confidante of former South Korean President Park Geun-hye to win government support for the merger of the two affiliates.
Lee is currently vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, the world’s top maker of smartphones and memory chips. Its annual revenue is equivalent to 12 per cent of South Korea’s gross domestic product.
“It appears that prosecutors have secured considerable amount of evidence through their investigation, but they fell short of explaining the validity to detain Lee,” the Seoul Central District Court said in a statement.
Samsung Group last week denied the allegation of stock-manipulation against Lee, saying it was “beyond common sense” to claim he had been involved in the decision-making.
In a further statement over the weekend, the group said the lengthy probe is weighing on management, which is in “crisis” at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic and US-China trade disputes are adding to uncertainty.
Prosecutors may still decide to reapply for Lee’s arrest warrant after further investigation, or bring Lee to trial without arrest.