By Na Jeong-ju
The elder brother of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee has filed a lawsuit against him to demand the return of part of the inheritance left by their father that he claims the chairman secretly pocketed, a court said Tuesday.
Lee Maeng-hee, the eldest son of Samsung Group founder Lee Byung-chull, claimed his rights to 8.24 million shares in Samsung Life Insurance and 20 in Samsung Electronics, demanding an additional 100 million won in cash. He also sued Samsung Everland, the de-facto holding company of Samsung Group, demanding 100 shares of its stake in Samsung Life Insurance and 100 million won.
The inheritance suit is roughly valued at 714 billion won ($634 million), according to the Seoul Central District Court.
The elder Lee, 81, father of CJ Group Chairman Lee Jay-hyun, claimed in a petition that his younger brother concealed a large number of group stocks, which their father held under the names of other people. After he died in 1987, the 70-year-old Lee Kun-hee, who succeeded as the group’s chairman, secretly incorporated the hidden stocks into his assets without telling his brothers and sisters about them, according to the elder Lee.
Lee Maeng-hee is known to be currently staying in Beijing, and has reportedly hired up to 10 lawyers for the suit. Samsung Group declined to comment on the inheritance dispute.
According to the elder Lee, his brother pocketed 32.5 million stocks of Samsung Life Insurance in December 2008. He also claimed hidden stocks in other group subsidiaries, including Samsung Electronics, were secretly transferred to his brother.
In the petition, the elder Lee claimed that he found out about the secret stocks last year.
``My brother said he told me that he possessed the stocks following an inheritance settlement with his heirs, but that’s not true. I never knew about the stocks until last year,” he said.
The late Samsung founder was survived by three sons and five daughters. The Samsung chairman is his youngest son. The second son, Lee Chang-hee, former chairman of Saehan Media, died in 1991.