A South Korean court on Tuesday, June 9, declined to issue an arrest warrant for the heir to the country’s Samsung empire over a controversial merger of two business units seen as a key step to his succession.
Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, is already being re-tried on charges of bribery, embezzlement, and other offences in connection with a corruption scandal that brought down former South Korean president Park Geun-hye.
The merger case is separate from his ongoing retrial, but adds to the difficulties for the Samsung group, by far the biggest of the family-controlled conglomerates, or chaebols, that dominate business in the world’s 12th-largest economy.
Prosecutors had sought the arrest warrant for Lee on suspicion he was involved in price manipulation and illegal trading during the 2015 merger of Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T.
Full Content: Japan Times
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