The independent counsel's investigation into the Samsung Group will reach its climax Friday when the team questions Chairman Lee Kun-hee over allegations about slush funds, bribery and illegal wealth transfer to his son. The summons is the first of its kind since 1995 when prosecutors interrogated Lee over leftover secret political funds kept by ex-Presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo.
The questioning comes seven years and 10 months after a civic group lodged a complaint against the nation's largest conglomerate, claiming that the group illegally handed over its control from Lee to his son, Jae-yong. At the center of the allegation is Samsung Everland, a major theme park and the de-facto holding company of the group. The independent counsel is to try to shed light on allegations that Chairman Lee was involved in the transfer.
In addition, the team is expected to confirm if Lee had played a role in creating huge slush funds to bribe bureaucrats, judges, prosecutors, lawmakers and politicians. The ongoing independent investigation of Samsung started in January after Kim Yong-chul, a former lawyer for the group, raised a flurry of wrongdoing charges against the business concern in late 2007.
Kim alleged that Samsung created 200 billion won ($202 million) in slush funds and that it regularly bribed government officials, judges and prosecutors. He also claimed Samsung illegally transferred wealth and control of the group from Lee to his son. Despite Samsung's repeated denial of Kim's allegations, there are growing suspicions that the conglomerate has systematically engaged in irregularities with the taciturn approval of the owner of the family-run chaebol.
Critics slammed the group of raising massive slush funds in an apparent bid to maintain the ``Samsung Empire,'' which aims to overpower the government and any other establishments. It might be a tragedy if Samsung really wanted to trample on the law, free competition and other market principles to emerge as a wild mammoth. Samsung should give up such an anachronistic ambition to set up a family-ruled corporate empire.
Independent counsel Cho Joon-woong must make a thorough investigation of Lee and his conglomerate in order to get to the bottom of the Samsung scandal. In fact, the probe team has shown its willingness to shed light on the case by summoning Lee's wife, Hong Ra-hee, Wednesday and his son, Jae-yong, last month. It also questioned many former and present Samsung executives over the corruption allegations.
We don't want to believe that the team has just conducted the investigation into the Lee family and his loyal executives as a rite of passage. The independent counsel should not follow a playbook to give a clean slate to the Lee family and his group before completing the investigation. It must bare the whole picture of the Samsung scandal so that the nation can learn a valuable lesson from the case.