It was revealed on the 24th that the prosecution, which is investigating allegations of unfair support for Samsung Group’s catering affiliate Welstory, requested a search and seizure warrant for Samsung Welstory and other related companies, but was dismissed by the court.
According to the legal circles, the Fair Trade Investigation Department of the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office (Chief Prosecutor Jin-won Ko) recently requested a search warrant for the Samsung Welstory headquarters in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, but it was dismissed. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office recently increased the number of prosecutors in the Fair Trade Investigation Department to 15 and attempted a forced investigation, but it was stranded from the first stage.
It has been over nine months since the Fair Trade Commission filed a complaint with the prosecution in June of last year once morest Samsung Electronics and former Samsung Group Future Strategy Director Choi Ji-sung for leading unfair support for Welstory (violation of the Fair Trade Act). The four Samsung Group companies (Samsung Electronics, Samsung Display, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, and Samsung SDI) are the main point of the allegation that they drove 100% of the in-house meal supply to Welstory from April 2013 to February last year.
This is the first time the prosecution has attempted a full-scale seizure and search in this case. In September last year, the prosecution issued and executed a search and seizure warrant issued by the court as usual in order to receive data secured by the Fair Trade Commission on Samsung Welstory and its affiliates.
However, when the arrest warrant was dismissed, inside the prosecution, there were also pointed out that “the court may have put the brakes on the court following hastily requested a warrant for a show-type search and seizure.” Even with the fact that the investigation team has significantly increased the number, there is an interpretation that it is to expand the investigation into the issue of the succession of management rights to Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong.
Correspondent Kodoye [email protected]
