Samsung chief Lee Jae-yong faces perjury charges
Key execs questioned over bribery allegations
By Jung Min-ho
Choi Gee-sung
Chang Choong-ki
Samsung Group Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong faces perjury charges over his earlier comments at the National Assembly about his private conversation with President Park Geun-hye.
The independent counsel team investigating the major influence-peddling scandal involving Park and her confidant Choi Soon-sil is considering indicting Lee on charges of perjury as he allegedly lied about the money Samsung gave to Choi through various channels.
During parliamentary hearings last month, Lee said that President Park neither mentioned nor asked him to pay contributions to the foundations under Choi’s control, when they had a private meeting on July 25, 2015.
But based on what was written in a note by An Chong-bum, a former presidential secretary, investigators believe the two had a discussion about Samsung’s “donation” of 20.4 billion won ($17 million) to the Mir and K-Sports foundations.
In his notes indicating the private meeting, An wrote “horse-riding” at the top. He also wrote “replace” next to the names of Lee Young-kook and Kwon Oh-taek _ Samsung officials who were holding executive posts at the Korea Equestrian Federation (KEF) at that time.
An reportedly told investigators that the President even berated the Samsung vice chairman for the unsatisfactory support for the KEF, which was later suspected of giving special favors to Choi’s daughter Chung Yoo-ra, a dressage competitor.
Investigators also found clues suggesting that the two might have talked about financially supporting other organizations controlled by Choi and her family.
Samsung has been accused of giving more than 2.8 billion won to Core Sports, which was later renamed Widec Sports, a paper company Choi and her daughter set up in Germany. Samsung is also suspected of giving 1.6 billion won to Jang Si-ho, Choi’s niece, through a children’s sports center she manages.
Investigators suspect that Lee was aware of the friendship between the President and Choi long before he claims. He said he learned of Choi around February 2016.
In return for the financial assistance to Choi and her cronies, it is suspect that the President ordered the National Pension Service (NPS), a key shareholder of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, to vote for the merger of the two units.
The merger was critical for Lee to strengthen control over the group, and the NPS supported the merger despite its foreseeable losses and the opposition of other shareholders.
If the link between Samsung’s “donations” and the NPS’ decision is found, investigators can press bribery charges against President Park and the Samsung executives who made the decision to support Choi.
In a related move, investigators questioned the group’s two senior executives ― co- Vice Chairman Choi Gee-sung, known as Samsung’s No. 2 man, and President Chang Choong-ki.
The leaders of Samsung’s future strategy planning division, its control tower, are suspected of helping Choi and her family with expectations of the merger support in return.
As they walked into the office of investigators in southern Seoul, Monday, Choi Gee-sung and Chang did not say a word to reporters.
“The two were called in as witnesses to the case but their statuses could change to suspects in the course of the interrogation,” an official at the investigation team said.
Bribery charges can only be applied to public officials who received something in return for specific favors. Thus, to complete the picture, investigators have to prove that the President conspired with Choi, who holds no official government post, to commit crimes.