Article: Two executives from Samsung Electronics arrested..including the leader of the "Intervention in the Elimination of Evidence" group
Source: Asia Economy
The prosecution has arrested two Samsung executives suspected of ordering the removal of Samsung Biologics' (Samba) accounting fraud data.
Judge Song Kyung-ho of the Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant for Baek (54), a senior executive of Samsung Electronics Task Force suspected of destroying evidence at 1:30pm wednesday as well as Seo (47) a senior prosecutor in the Task Force.
The Judge said, "It seems like the charges of crime are clear. Because of how the suspects and the related people are responding to the investigation, there are concerns of evidence destruction."
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| Seo (left), Baek (middle) heading to Seoul Court on May 10, 2019 for interrogation before arrest |
According to the prosecution, the Samsung Executives are suspected of ordering Samsung Electronics C and its subsidiary Epis to cover up and manipulate accounting data and internal reports after the Financial Services Commission began its investigation into the accounting fraud last summer. Nine months after Samsung Group's future strategy office was disbanded in February 2017, a business support "Task Force" was created just after Vice Chairman Lee Jae Young was arrested. The prosecution believes that there may have been group-level involvement in concealing the damaging evidence for the accounting fraud and are narrowing their investigation network.
The prosecution believes Samsung Bio and Epis were instructed the hide the company's public server by tearing the floor of the factory. They were also instructed to search for words like 'JY' and 'VIP' that refer to Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong and delete them from mobile phones and notebooks (laptops). Baek Sang-moo, the Samsung Bio Security officer that heads the 'Task Force' department was arrested on the 8th for alleged involvement in hiding the public server in the floor of the factory. He reportedly told the prosecution that there was an order from the "upside" (upper management).
On the 10th, the prosecution arrested the executives charges of leading the evidence destruction practice and also summoned Samsung Bio CFO Kim (54) for investigation into the decision-making process for the accounting and the alleged evidence destruction. CFO Kim was the head of the Samsung Bio Management Support Division from 2014-2017.
According to the Securities and Futures Commission (SEC), Epis' accounting fraud led the company to have an inflated company value of over 4.5 trillion KRW. They have recommended that Samsung Biotech change its accounting standards and dismiss the company head.
More information about the Samba accounting fraud and VP Lee Jae Yong here.
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