Samsung heir tells corruption trial

The heir to the world’s top smartphone maker Samsung had no role in decision-making at the wider group, he told a court Wednesday in his trial for corruption over the scandal that brought down South Korea’s last president.

It was the first time Lee Jae-Yong, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics and the son of the Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-Hee, had been interrogated by prosecutors since the high-profile proceedings began in March.

The 49-year-old, under detention while the trial is underway, bowed slightly towards the three judges on the podium as he took the stand in Seoul, with his co-defendants, an army of lawyers, and a packed courtroom looking on.

Lee and four other executives are accused of bribing the powerful confidante of then-President Park Geun-Hye with millions of dollars to win presidential favours and ease a controversial 2015 merger deal.

At the time the group’s elite Future Strategy Office (FSO) dictated the vast company’s overall direction and major business decisions.

“I have never attended a single one” of the group’s elite Future Strategy Office (FSO) regular Wednesday weekly meetings, he said. “I have no idea what is being discussed.”

Samsung -- the world’s biggest smartphone and memory chip maker -- is also South Korea’s largest business group with revenues equivalent to about a fifth of the country’s GDP.

The takeover deal was seen as a key step in ensuring an untroubled power transfer to Lee from his father, who had suffered a heart attack in 2014 and remains incapacitated.

Lee said he was “directly and actively involved in the management decisions at Samsung Electronics”.

But despite his senior position and the absence of his father -- which effectively left him at the helm of the group -- Lee said his knowledge of other industries “was far more limited”.

“So I rarely expressed my opinions on these areas and mostly listened to other executives,” he told the court. “Since the chairman became bedridden, I’ve tried to learn more.”

He “just followed the advice” of the Future Strategy Office over the merger, he added.