14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung seems to have a special propensity towards making the news for legal issues, even when those issues are not ones it is actually involved in, like this latest development.
We cannot help but experience a feeling of déjà vu as we read about the new lawsuit that Samsung's Chairman Lee Kun-hee has been slapped with.
As if the action from two weeks ago wasn't enough, the man has been called to court again, on similar charges.
For those that don't remember, Lee Kun-hee, Samsung's chairman, landed in a battle with his elder brother.
The latter sued him over inheritance, claiming that Lee Kun-hee concealed a mass of group stocks in Samsung Electronics after their father's passing and transferred them under his own name, somehow.
We weren't thrilled about exploring family-breaking events, and we aren't now either, as we report about history repeating itself.
Basically, the company's chairman has been sued for inheritance again, but this time by his sister: Lee Sook-hee.
She is demanding the return of assets worth 190 billion won, the equivalent of $168.91 million and 125.69 million Euro.
This includes shares in two of Samsung's subsidiaries: Samsung Life Insurance and Samsung Electronics.
Like before, she claims that her brother transferred the shares under his own name from the trust founded by their father before his passing in 1987.
As one can tell, 1987 was a long time ago, so we can only wonder how it is that this matter is only coming to the surface now. Apparently, so is Samsung.
Then again, it would be too early and easy to attribute this to ambition or greed on the part of the two, disgruntled elder siblings. It would not be the first time someone illicitly handled funds and assets only for the matter to come to light many years later. Too bad it had to turn into a family feud.