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Chaebol Scion Jay Y. Lee, Samsung Chief Arrested As Corruption Scandal Rocks South Korea
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As part of South Korea’s crusade against corruption, Jay Y. Lee the Group chief of Samsung was arrested in connection to a scandal involving many powerful government officials in the country.
The 48-years old heir of the country's richest family is a suspect in the influence-peddling scandal which provoked the Parliament to impeach President Park Geun-hye last December. She is the country's first democratically elected leader to be forced out of office.
This detention of Jay Y. Lee was preceded by his father Lee Kun-hee being handed a three-year suspended jail sentence in 2009 for tax evasion. However, he was later pardoned. The Korean tech giant was going through an ongoing restructuring to clear a succession path for Lee to assume control after his father was suffered from a heart attack in 2014. But this arrest further complicated that process.
Things have not been good for Samsung since last year as it was tackling the disastrous rollout of its Galaxy Note 7 which were prone to fires. The prosecutors’ focus has been on Samsung's relationship with President Park, accusing the group of paying bribes to obtain government backing for the controversial 2015 merger of two Samsung units.
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