The vice chairman and wealthy heir of Samsung, Jay Y. Lee, is the latest important figure to be implicated in the presidential corruption scandal that has shocked South Korea.
Prosecutors claim that Lee gave 43 billion won ($36 million) in bribes to South Korean President Gun-Hye Park and her advisor, Soon-sil Choi. It is supposed that he money came in the form of donations to Choi's non-profit foundations in an attempt to curry favor with the government and consolidate his family's control over the huge company.
The Central District Court of Seoul is deciding whether or not to issue the warrant, which would make Jay Y. Lee the first executive in the country to be arrested due to the scandal.
Lee has been running Samsung
Lee is the vice chairman of Samsung, he has spent his entire career there, starting at Samsung Electronics in 1991, and then becoming its president in 2009 and vice chairman in 2013. The chairman of Samsung has been unable to work since a heart attack in 2014. His son has been running the company, which has an annual revenue of 270 trillion won ($229 billion).
The crown jewel of the company, Samsung Electronics, accounts for one-fifth of South Korean exports. Samsung has had a very important role in the south korean economy, it is a huge company with a high level of exports.
Lee is the only son of Kun-hee Lee, he was groomed from a young age to take over the family company, one of South Korea's most important and powerful chaebols; his father allowed him to join in board meetings since he was a child.
Samsung's father-and-son are wealthy: as of Monday the younger Lee was worth $6 billion and his father Kun-hee Lee was worth $14.7 billion.
