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South Korean media chief quizzed
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Wed, Mar 05, 2008
The Straits Times
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SEOUL - SPECIAL prosecutors probing claims of corruption and shady dealings at Samsung Group yesterday questioned the brother-in-law of the conglomerate's chairman.
Cable news channel YTN showed Mr Hong Seok Hyun, chairman of the influential mass-circulation JoongAng Ilbo newspaper and the latest high-profile person to be quizzed in the two-month-old investigation, arriving at the special prosecutor's office.
Mr Hong, South Korea's former ambassador to the United States, is married to the sister of the Samsung chairman.
An official at the prosecutor's office, who declined to give her name, said that prosecutors had summoned Mr Hong and that he was being questioned. She did not elaborate.
| An independent counsel approved by Parliament and South Korea's former president, who left office last week, has been looking into alleged wrongdoing at Samsung since early January and has until late next month to wrap up the probe.
The investigation was spurred by allegations raised last year by Mr Kim Yong Chul, a former Samsung legal affairs official. He claimed that Samsung had created a 200 billion won (S$294 million) slush fund to bribe government officials, judges and prosecutors.
Samsung has denied the allegations, which also include claims that the slush fund was used by Samsung chairman Lee Kun Hee's family to purchase expensive works of art.
South Korean conglomerates, known as chaebol, have long been accused of influence peddling as well as dubious transactions between subsidiaries to help controlling families evade taxes and transfer wealth to heirs.
Samsung, South Korea's biggest conglomerate, consists of dozens of diverse corporations, some unlisted, and has a complex ownership structure involving cross-shareholdings by group companies.
Besides the slush fund claim, investigators are also reportedly looking into long-simmering allegations of murky dealings involving the group's structure, particularly how it may relate to the possible transfer of corporate control from Mr Lee to his son.
The JoongAng Ilbo, established by Samsung in 1965, was an affiliate of the conglomerate until 1999.
Mr Kim, the former Samsung lawyer, has also alleged irregularities in the newspaper's exit from the group.
But Mr Hong told reporters that the accusations regarding JoongAng Ilbo were false and would be cleared up during the investigation.
The questioning comes days after investigators quizzed Mr Lee Jae Yong, the chairman's son and also an executive at Samsung Electronics, and the conglomerate's No.2 official, vice-chairman Lee Hak Soo.
South Korean media reported in recent days that Mr Lee Kun Hee himself was likely to be summoned at some point, perhaps as early as this weekend.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
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