The eldest son of the late Samsung founder has proposed an out-of-court settlement in an inheritance suit he lodged against his brother and Samsung Group owner Lee Kun-hee

December 26, 2013 Leave a comment

2013-12-25 16:34

Samsung brothers seek reconciliation

Kim Rahn
The eldest son of the late Samsung founder has proposed an out-of-court settlement in an inheritance suit he lodged against his brother and Samsung Group owner Lee Kun-hee. Whether the latter will accept the offer is not yet known. According to CJ Group, former Cheil Fertilizer Chairman Lee Maeng-hee’s lawyer proposed the settlement to Lee Kun-hee’s lawyer during a hearing at the Seoul High Court, Tuesday. Lee Maeng-hee, the first son of Samsung founder Lee Byung-chull, is father of CJ Group Chairman Lee Jay-hyun who is now behind bars for tax evasion and embezzlement. He filed the suit to claim a substantial part of his younger brother’s inheritance. The offer came a day after it was announced that he has relapsed into cancer.“His cancer recurred and he has been undergoing treatment, with further therapies required. He is also concerned of his jailed son, whose health has also deteriorated. I guess such combined events have made him consider reconciliation. Public opinion on the legal battle is also negative,” a CJ official said.
Lee Kun-hee’s side, however, did not immediately respond although they hinted they are not keen on the suggestion.
“The purpose of the suit is to verify the late founder’s intention about the inheritance. Reconciliation may damage the purpose,” Lee Kun-hee’s lawyer told reporters after the hearing, adding the suit is not the matter of money but a question of legitimacy and principle.
“I’ll convey the offer to Chairman Lee Kun-hee and listen to his opinion,” he said.
The suit started in February last year when the elder brother asked a local court to order Lee Kun-hee to return shares of Samsung Life Insurance worth 2.7 trillion won. He also demanded Samsung Everland return 1.4 trillion won worth of shares the firm holds in other Samsung units.
Lee Maeng-hee claimed his younger brother hid these shares from his siblings after their father died.
But the local court ruled in favor of Lee Kun-hee, saying the 10-year period for inheritance claims had expired and there was no evidence to prove that dividends from Samsung companies were intended as part of the inheritance from the founder.
The eldest son then appealed.

Filed under Macro Trends

Unknown's avatarAbout bambooinnovator
Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

Leave a comment