Samsung dynasty faces messy public succession
by The Canadian Press
A feud over the riches of South Korea's Samsung business empire has erupted in public as family members prepare to take an inheritance battle to court.
SEOUL, South Korea—A feud over the riches of South Korea’s Samsung business empire has erupted in public as family members prepare to take an inheritance battle to court.
Lee Kun-hee, chairman of Samsung Electronics Co.—the flagship company of the Samsung conglomerate—is facing off against his older brother, a sister and a nephew’s wife who all want a bigger piece of the Samsung pie.
The court battle will likely upset a dynastic succession in Samsung’s leadership, potentially unraveling a cross-shareholding structure that allows Lee Kun-hee to control the group as a minority shareholder.
Battles for control of Chaebol, South Korea’s family-controlled industrial groups that wield immense power over the economy, are not uncommon but it is unusual for the internal wrangling to become public.
Lee Meng-hee filed a lawsuit in February, demanding more than 700 billion won ($613 million) of shares in Samsung Life Insurance Co. and other companies. Similar claims followed by Lee’s older sister and the wife of a dead nephew.
Lee Kun-hee, the third son of Samsung founder Lee Byung-chull, was tapped in 1979 by his father to lead what would become South Korea’s most valuable company.
The 70-year-old Samsung chairman has refused to settle the dispute out of court. A date for the first hearing in the case will be announced after the court reviews responses from Samsung, said lawyer Jeong Jin-su of Yoon & Yang LLC, which represents the three plaintiffs.
