A top Samsung executive was summoned for questioning by authorities in South Korea on Wednesday as part of a bribery investigation surrounding the country’s impeached president, according to Bloomberg.
Jay Y. Lee, the company’s vice chairman and de facto leader, was also identified as a suspect in the investigation, a spokesman for the prosecutor said in a press conference.
Police are investigating whether Lee and Samsung made payments to Choi Soon-sil, a confidant of embattled President Park Geun-hye, in exchange for favors from the president.
{mosads}Police specifically are looking into whether Lee used the intermediary to influence South Korea’s national pension service to support a merger between two Samsung entities, Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T Corp. The merger was approved in 2015.
Investigators asked parliament to file perjury charges against Lee, though they did not explain why.