Samsung Security headquarters raided in Seoul

SAMSUNG SECURITY headquarters were raided today by the Seoul District Prosecutor’s Office after allegations of corruption, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Former top legal affairs official at Samsung, Kim Yong-chul, recently claimed that the massive company had raised a 200 billion won – that’s about $215 million – slush fund solely to bribe prosecutors, lawmakers and judges. Since then, an investigation into the company has been going on, approved by the National Assembly.

Kim Soo-Nam, a spokesman for the Seoul prosecutors’ office, has said that he and co “will take documents and files that could be relevant to the allegations about the Group’s slush fund.”

Samsung however is fiercely denying the claims, gone on record as saying that they’re “nothing but a repeat of false, distorted and exaggerated claims.” Ha Jung-Seok of Samsung Securities told of a horde of prosecutors storming in and sweeping the place for financial documents and computer hard discs.

“They first started searching our planning and strategic division, then the search extended to all floors of our headquarters,” he said.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Samsung Securities shares had dropped by 2.2% on Friday, but recovered after a session with investors, who apparently believe that the investigation won’t amount to much.

Jun Yim, also of Samsung, said he and his pals are “surprised” by the raids but are fully cooperating with the investigations. µ