South Korea - prosecutors raid Samsung Electronics over political scandal: ARIRANG NEWS

ARIRANG NEWS

Published on Nov 7, 2016

검찰, 삼성전자 압수수색…최순실•정유라 특혜지원 의혹
The prosecution's investigation into the Choi Soon-sil scandal is picking up a head of steam... this time,... raiding the offices of the nation's biggest tech firm Samsung Electronics.

Samsung is accused of indirectly giving millions of dollars to Choi's daughter to support her horseback riding profession.

Kim Hyesung reports.
Prosecutors raided the Seoul headquarters of Samsung Electronics Tuesday as part of their probe into the Choi Soon-sil scandal.

It's alleged Samsung may have given more than three million U.S. dollars in 2015 to a German company 'Widec Sports' owned by Choi and her daughter.

Prosecutors say Choi used a third of the money to buy a horse for her daughter Chung Yoo-ra, who was previously a member of the South Korean national equestrian team.

Choi Soon Sil has been charged with abuse of power and fraud by using her close ties with President Park to force Korean conglomerates to donate money to two foundations, Mir and K-Sports.

Samsung is known to have donated over 17 million dollars, the most among 53 companies... that together gave around 70 million dollars. 

In addition, state prosecutors are looking into whether Cha Eun-taek, a music video producer who had close ties to Choi ... meddled in state-led cultural projects.

The prosecution said Tuesday that it questioned a key person, only identified by his family name Kim late last week,... about whether Cha engaged in deciding what company would be in charge of a national brand project called "Creative Korea."

Cha is deemed a key suspect in the scandal, but he's currently known to be in China.

Prosecutors have been accelerating their probe to search for new evidence into the activities of Choi Soon-sil and former top aides to President Park.

Kim Hyesung, Arirang News.