Seoul : Samsung heir Lee Jae-Yong has become a criminal suspect in a widening probe into the corruption and influence-peddling scandal engulfing impeached South Korean President Park Geun-Hye, prosecutors said.
Lee, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics and the son of the Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-Hee (pic Cap), would be quizzed as a “suspect” in connection to bribery, prosecutors said. “We have decided to question Lee
tomorrow morning… as a suspect,” Lee Kyu-Chul, spokesman for the team of special prosecutors investigating the scandal, told reporters. The affair centres on Park’s secret confidante Choi Soon-Sil, who is accused of using her ties to Park to coerce top firms into “donating” tens of millions of dollars to two non-profit foundations which Choi then used as her personal ATMs.
Samsung was the biggest contributor to the foundations. It is also accused of separately giving millions of euros to Choi to bankroll her daughter’s equestrian training in Germany in a bid to curry favour.
