April 26, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Ahn Jong-beom, the former presidential secretary of the ex-President Park Geun-hye, on July 5 testified in the bribery trial of Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong that the impeached president did not order support for the 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates.

“There was no word like ‘merger’ in my memo,” he recalled after a closed meeting between Park and the Samsung heir in July 2015 that was held before a shareholders’ vote on the merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries.

“If the former president had made any order or had mentioned the issue, I must have written the word in my memo.”

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Prosecutors claim Park during the meeting asked Lee, the de facto Samsung leader, to offer financial support to organizations run by her longtime confidante Choi Soon-sil and her daughter, equestrian athlete Chung Yoon-ra, in return for the government’s backing of the controversial merger, a crucial step for Samsung’s leadership transfer to the junior Lee.

Following the meeting, Samsung signed a contract worth 21.3 billion won (US$18.53 million) with the organizations and gave an additional 7.8 billion won to the daughter directly.

But Samsung has claimed the money was offered to support the nation’s sports and cultural sectors, not for the merger deal.

“I also cannot recall any order for government officials, including former Health Minister Moon Hyung-pyo, then presidential senior secretary for health and welfare Kim Jin-soo, and former head of the National Pension Service’s asset management division Hong Wan-sun, to support the merger or come up with measures for the deal’s approval,” he added.

Despite opposition from some minority shareholders, including US hedge fund Elliott Management, the deal was approved largely due to the backing of the National Pension Service, then the largest shareholder of Samsung C&T.

In June, Moon and Hong were sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison on charges of redirection of duty, respectively.

Prosecutors earlier confiscated Ahn’s 69 notebooks written during meetings and phone calls with Park. They said they found out some scribbles indicating the Samsung merger, such as “measures for the Samsung-Elliott case,” “deployment of schemes to vitalize M&As,” “rights and interest of minority shareholders,” and “global standards.”

The jailed president is refusing to appear in Samsung’s heir trial as a witness despite repeated requests from prosecutors.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)