Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee dies at 78

Samsung Electronics has introduced the loss of life of its chairman, Lee Kun-hee. The firm says he died on October twenty fifth with household together with his son, vice-chairman Lee Jae-yong, at his aspect. He was 78.

A reason behind loss of life was not given, however Lee had been incapacitated for a few years after struggling a coronary heart assault in 2014, inflicting him to withdraw from public life. Lee Jae-yong, also called Jay Y. Lee, had been extensively assumed to take over upon his father’s passing and has been seen because the de facto chief lately.

Lee Kun-hee was a controversial determine who performed an enormous half in pushing Samsung from an affordable TV and home equipment maker to probably the most highly effective expertise manufacturers on this planet. He turned the richest man in South Korea, with the Samsung group contributing round a fifth of the nation’s GDP. In its assertion, Samsung says that Lee’s declaration of “new management” in 1993 was “the motivating driver of the company’s vision to deliver the best technology to help advance global society.”

Lee additionally discovered himself in authorized hassle. He was discovered responsible of bribing President Roh Tae-woo via a slush fund in 1995, and of tax evasion and embezzlement in 2008, however was formally pardoned for every conviction. The second pardon got here in 2009 and was made “so that Lee could take back his place at the International Olympic Committee and form a better situation for the 2018 Olympics to take place in Pyongchang,” South Korea’s justice minister mentioned at the time.

Lee’s passing will reignite inevitable hypothesis over the succession course of. While Lee Jae-yong has lengthy been groomed to develop into chairman, he’s had authorized problems with his personal since his father’s incapacitation, spending virtually a yr in jail for his position within the corruption scandal that introduced down former South Korean president Park Geun-hye. South Korean regulation additionally implies that anybody assuming Lee’s property will face paying a number of billion {dollars} in inheritance tax, which can pressure them to cut back their stake within the firm.

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