South Korean prosecutors have indicted Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong on charges of stock price manipulation and other financial crimes.
South Korean prosecutors have indicted Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong on charges of stock price manipulation and other financial crimes. The move sets up what could be a protracted legal battle to determine whether the 52-year-old billionaire illegally cemented his control over the business giant. Lee’s lawyers rejected the charges, which were also filed against 10 other current and former Samsung executives, describing them as “investigators’ one-sided claims”. They maintain that a controversial 2015 merger between two Samsung affiliates that helped Lee increase control over the group’s crown jewel Samsung Electronics, the world’s biggest producer of computer chips and smartphones, was “normal business activity”. A Seoul court earlier rejected the prosecutors’ request to arrest Lee, who stepped into his leadership role after his father, Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun-hee, fell ill in May 2014.
