South Korea’s independent counsel has reapplied for arrest warrant for Samsung Group’s de facto leader Jay Y. Lee on bribery allegations in connection with a massive political scandal that led to the parliamentary impeachment of President Park Geun-hye late last year.

Special prosecutors said late Tuesday they asked a court to grant a pretrial arrest warrant for Lee, the heir to Samsung Group and vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, and Samsung Electronics president Park Sang-jin, who is responsible for the company’s external relations, on charges of bribery, embezzlement of corporate funds, and hiding assets and criminal proceeds overseas.

It was their second attempt as their first request last month was rejected by the court citing insufficient evidence.

The independent prosecutors were more confident this time claiming to have secured new evidence on Lee.

They charge Lee received help from the presidential office to facilitate a merger instrumental in strengthening his legitimate hold over the group upon making contributions to President Park Geun-hye and her friend Choi Soon-sil.

Prosecutors believe that the presidential office commanded the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) to go light on Samsung Group following the merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries in 2015. 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 it down to 5 million shares. The anti-trust regulator was raided by special investigators earlier this month.

The prosecution also cited crimes of capital flight to overseas destinations by Samsung in addition to bribery and embezzlement in its request to detain Lee in connection with Samsung’s donation of 7.8 billion won ($6.82 million) to Choi’s paper company Core Sports in Germany.

A charge of concealment of criminal proceeds was slapped regarding Samsung’s purchasing of a 2 billion won horse for Choi`s daughter, who is an equestrian, under a false contract to make it look like a deal to support the entire dressage industry.

Other Samsung Group executives - future strategy office’s Choi Ji-sung and Chang Choong-ki and Samsung Electronics senior executive Hwang Sung-soo (vice chairman of the Korea Equestrian Federation), who were questioned over Samsung’s sponsorship for Choi’s daughter, are likely to be indicted without detention.

A court hearing to review the arrest warrant request will be held on Thursday.

By Cho Sung-ho

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