Senior executives of one of the world’s leading CE ompanies, Samsung, are facing corruption charges with investigators in Korea this week storing the home of the company’s Chairman.
Investigators this week raided Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee’s home in Itaewon, Seoul and other key Samsung offices as part of a special-counsel inquiry of corruption involving Korea’s biggest conglomerate. They also included the group’s headquarters in Taepyeongro, Seoul and the Taepyeongro Building next door, as well as SDS eData centers in Gyeonggi Province. It was the first raid of the Samsung chairman’s home and the group headquarters, following a similar unprecedented raid on Lee’s office on Monday.
Members of the team of special counsel Cho Joon-woong raided Samsung headquarters at 9 a.m. They then searched Lee’s home for four hours and 30 minutes, starting at 11 a.m. At noon, other teams simultaneously raided two SDS eData centers in Gwacheon and Suwon. The search of headquarters was focused on the offices of chairman Lee and vice chairman Lee Hak-soo.
The offices of the group’s financial executives on the 27th floor of Samsung headquarters are where, according to whistleblower Kim Yong-chul, Samsung’s slush funds were kept in a secret vault. According to Kim, the 26th floor of the Taepyeongro Building was the location for frequent meetings chaired by Lee Hak-soo to cope with past investigations into the group. The SDS eData centers are depositories of all domestic and foreign electronic data of Samsung Group.
