Prosecutors indicted a vice chairman at Samsung Electronics Co Ltd on Friday as they ended a seven-month probe into illegal election funding by some of South Korea's top conglomerates.
They alleged Lee Hak-soo took 34 billion won ($29 million) from Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee's personal funds and gave it to the opposition Grand National Party during the 2002 campaign that brought President Roh Moo-hyun to power.
Samsung Group, the country's top conglomerate, apologised in a statement for raising concern over the funding scandal and said it would strive to help the country's sluggish economy recover. But it refused to comment directly on the charges against the vice chairman.
The prosecutors investigated a range of family-controlled conglomerates, or "chaebol", including global brands such as Samsung Electronics - the most valuable technology company outside the United States - and Hyundai Motor Co. They indicted several people, including parliamentarians.
"Disappointment lingers, but we are concluding the investigation on illegal presidential campaign financing," the prosecutors said in a statement.
"We were lenient to corporations that co-operated in the investigation, considering the substance of the probe was political impropriety and not corporate wrongdoings, and the influence on the national economy."
Separate from the state prosecutors' investigation, Roh's administration is mounting a drive to reform management practices at chaebol.
That process has been closely watched by foreign investors, who partly blame these practices for the relatively low value of South Koran stocks.
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