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A former top legal executive at Samsung Group yesterday made fresh accusations against the country's largest conglomerate, saying it had used subsidiaries to help create a 200 billion won ($283 million) slush fund.
Samsung officials were not immediately available for comment but the company has previously denied charges by Kim Yong-cheol, who used to run a major legal division but now says he wants to blow the whistle on corruption.
"Samsung has created a large-scale slush fund," Kim told a nationally televised news conference, the second this month accusing his former employer of impropriety.
As Samsung legal counsel he saw secret documents which laid out intricate arrangements between affiliates to channel money to the illegal fund, he said.
Some of the money was used to buy art, he said, but otherwise did not specify what it was used for. Kim has accused Samsung of routinely bribing prosecutors and politicians to quash investigations.
Last week, South Korea's Parliament voted to allow an independent counsel to investigate the Samsung Group.
The bill also authorises an investigation into whether Samsung made improper payments during campaigning for the 2002 presidential election. President Roh Moo-hyun won that election.
Roh, who has about three months left in office, is considering vetoing the bill, his office has said.
The Samsung group had combined sales of US$159 billion ($209.6 billion) in 2006, about one-sixth of the country's GDP that year.
- REUTERS
