Jay Y. Lee, Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics and heir-apparent to South Korea’s largest conglomerate, said Tuesday Samsung Group could do away with the Future Strategy Office that acts as a private secretariat for the owner family overseeing their riches as well as group affairs often coming under fire for shady deals and lately for delivering handsome charities to nonprofit organizations created by the president’s longtime friend Choi Soon-sil as well as looking after Choi’s daughter.

“I am well aware of many questions and negative views on the Future Strategy Office. It is a delicate issue as the division was created by the group founder and is a legacy sustained by the chairman (Lee Kun-hee, bedridden father of the younger Lee),” Lee told lawmakers in a televised parliamentary hearing on the unprecedented power abuse scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her friend Choi. Choi and presidential aides have been indicted for pressing companies to make donations to two nonprofit funds created under the pretext of promoting cultural activities and sports. Samsung had been the most generous donator, handing out 20.4 billion won ($17.5 million) out of 77.4 billion won Choi’s two groups collected from 53 companies.

The hearing out to question the president’s role in the act of collecting funds from companies summoned chiefs of eight major conglomerates. The questioning that went on throughout Tuesday mostly centered on the Samsung heir. The legislative is readying impeachment motion against the president who would face criminal charges upon resigning from office.

The Future Strategy Office started out as a personal secretariat for the group founder Lee Byung-chull. The department closed down in June 2008 when the conglomerate came under prosecution probe on bribery charges. It was reactivated as the control tower of the group in December 2010.

Lee also said Samsung Group plans to divorce from the Federation of Korean Industries, a lobby group for chaebols that acted as go-between for Choi’s charity groups and major conglomerates.

The National Pension Service as well as Samsung’s Future Strategy Office came under prosecution raid upon suspicion of political purpose behind the pension fund’s vote of approval in the proposed merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries that was suspected of having bigger service to reinforce the younger Lee’s succession of the Samsung empire than for corporate benefit.

Lee reiterated that his inheritance was unrelated to the corporate merger.

He claimed the group could not resist the request from the Blue House. “We heard from the President that she wished companies to contribute more for cultural cultivation and sports promotion,” he said. But he stressed that the group had not made the donations expecting some kind of favors in return.

Lee had been running Korea’s top conglomerate on behalf of his father who was hospitalized in May 2014. He recently became a registered managing director of the board at Samsung Electronics.

Share of Samsung Electronics ended at 1,748,000 ($1,496.83) won, up 30,000 won or 1.75 percent from the previous session.

By Song Sung-hoon

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]