Samsung Group’s de facto chief Jay Y. Lee returned home early Tuesday from second round of questioning from independent counsel determined to place Lee liable for a bribery charge along with President Park Geun-hye.

Lee, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, was released after a near 16-hour questioning. The last time he was questioned a month ago, the independent counsel filed for pretrial custody that was later struck down by a local court. Upon new evidence, the counsel team plans to reclaim to detain Lee as early as Wednesday.

“I will tell the truth faithfully today as I did before,” Lee said as he entered the Special Counsel Park Young-soo’s office in southern Seoul on Monday morning.

The independent counsel is trying to bring criminal charges against Park, her friend Choi Soon-sil and other members of their inner circle for broad influence-peddling scandal that has led to nationwide protests demanding Park’s resignation and impeachment. The impeachment becomes official after review by the Constitutional Court, and the independent counsel’s findings could be pivotal.

In the second round of questioning, the counsel team focused to prove whether Lee’s donation to Park and Choi has been connected to Lee’s hereditary succession.

Earlier this month, special investigators raided the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) on suspicion that the presidential office could have exercised influence over the regulator to go easy on Samsung Group following the merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries in 2015, which had been instrumental in cementing Lee’s control over the conglomerate on behalf of his bedridden father.

The FTC initially decided to make Samsung SDI dispose 10 million shares in the merged Samsung C&T shares under cross-shareholding regulation, but revised down the order to 5 million shares.

On Monday, two senior executives of Samsung -- Samsung Electronics president Park Sang-jin and senior executive Hwang Sung-soo -- were questioned over whether the sponsorship for Choi’s daughter was under Lee’s instruction. Both had positions at the Korea Equestrian Federation. This takes the total number of Samsung Group executives summoned as suspects to five, including its future strategy office’s Choi Ji-sung and Chang Choong-ki. The special prosecution will decide whether to take the top executives into custody when it re-files for Lee’s pretrial detention.

By Cho Sung-ho

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