Prosecutors Re-summon Choi Ji-sung and Kim Jong-joong over Samsung Merger Allegations

Jeong Gyeong-sim, wife of Justice Minister Cho Kuk and a professor at Dongyang University, was summoned privately for the fifth time on the 14th for investigation by the prosecution. The photo was taken at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the same day. Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-yoon] The prosecution investigating the merger allegations between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries re-summoned former Samsung Future Strategy Office chief Choi Ji-sung and former FSO president Kim Jong-joong on the 19th.

The Economic Crime Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Bok-hyun) summoned and is currently investigating former chief Choi and former president Kim this morning. Both Choi and Kim worked together at the FSO at the time.

The prosecution is probing various suspicions surrounding the 2015 merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, including the overall decision-making process within the group’s top management and whether there was organized involvement at the group level.

The prosecution suspects that the Samsung Group deliberately lowered Samsung C&T’s company value by reducing overseas construction orders and other performance indicators right before the merger to set a merger ratio favorable to Vice Chairman Lee. The prosecution believes that the value of Cheil Industries, in which Vice Chairman Lee held shares, was inflated to merge with Samsung C&T, and that accounting fraud was committed at Samsung BioLogics, a Cheil Industries subsidiary, to justify the merger ratio applied favorably to Vice Chairman Lee.

Regarding the merger allegations, the group’s top executives have been successively summoned as the investigation accelerates. The prosecution is expected to summon Vice Chairman Lee soon.

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