Former justice not to attend citizen panel for Samsung heir

Yang Chang-soo, former Supreme Court Justice and head of the prosecution's external committee, attends an expert committee meeting held at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seoul, April 13, 2018. Yang announced his resignation from the chief post of the committee because he has maintained a friendship with one of Samsung's top executives. / Yonhap

By Baek Byung-yeul

Former Supreme Court Justice Yang Chang-soo stepped down as head of the prosecution's external committee which is set to decide the validity of the investigation into Samsung leader Lee Jae-yong and other top executives, amid a conflict of interest around his relationship with a Samsung executive.

The ex-top court justice released a statement Tuesday that he will step down as the committee's chairperson because he has maintained a friendship with one of Samsung's top executives.

"I have maintained a long-time friendship with Choi Gee-sung. Though Choi is not a subject who requested the prosecution to convene the citizen panel, he is one of the suspects involved in the case which the external committee will review to assess the validity of the prosecution's investigation into Samsung," he said.

Choi was vice chairman of Samsung Electronics and chief of the Future Strategy Office, a now-defunct control tower of Samsung Group. Yang and Choi both attended Seoul High School.

Samsung's legal attorneys requested Seoul Central Prosecutors' Office to convene an independent committee to review the investigation into Samsung's de facto leader Lee Jae-yong, who was suspected of conspiring with other executives to lower the value of Samsung C&T and inflate that of Cheil Industries before their merger in 2015.

Since then, there has been controversy over whether Yang is suitable to supervise the committee due to his relationship with Choi.

Another dispute regarding the composition of the committee comes from Yang's relation to Kwon O-jung, president of Samsung Medical Center, his brother-in-law.

The medical center is an affiliate of Samsung Group and Lee Jae-yong's ailing father Chairman Lee Kun-hee has been in Samsung Seoul Hospital for six years. Kwon, who served as dean of Sungkyunkwan University's medical school, has been working in the medical center since 2015.

The external committee system was introduced in January 2018 to enhance the neutrality and fairness of investigations deemed to be in the public interest. The 15-member expert panel will determine in a majority vote whether prosecutors should continue with their investigation and whether Lee and other executives should be indicted. The committee will convene a meeting on June 26.

The external committee is widely seen as Lee Jae-yong's last resort to clear suggestions of collusion in the merger between the two Samsung units. The prosecution has accepted the conclusions made by previous committees in every case.

In response to Yang's resignation, judicial circles expressed their opposition, saying the call that he should quit the post because he has friendly relations with one of the suspects is irrational.

"He has been in the chief post of the committee before Samsung requested the prosecution to convene the meeting. It will be biased toward the panel if the prosecution appoints a new chief whenever they are asked to hold a meeting," said Choi June-sun, a law professor at Sungkyunkwan University. "Samsung Group has more than 300,000 employees and it is no wonder a member of the panel has a relationship with a Samsung staff member."

While Samsung is waiting for the composition of the panel to be decided, Lee has held three meetings with C-level executives in its core businesses such as memory chip semiconductors, contract-based foundry and mobile communications on Monday, according to Samsung.

The series of meetings were Lee's first move after the court rejected the prosecution's request to issue an arrest warrant for him and other top executives. Samsung said Lee held the meetings to review their business plans amid uncertainties over the prolonging COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing U.S.―China and Korea ―Japan trade disputes.

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