14 DAY TRIAL // In a move that may or may not be surprising, depending on how much of Samsung's legal troubles one is acquainted with, the chairman of the company just got slammed with a lawsuit of his own.
In this instance, at least, it is not Samsung, as a company, that is feeling the hard part of the gavel, but its chairman.
This may or may not directly affect the company itself, depending on the outcome of the judicial move.
Long story short, Samsung’s chairman, Lee Kun-hee, has been sued by his elder brother over inheritance.
More precisely, the latter alleges 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.
This is just the sort of thing that can break up a family forever, so we don't feel all that enthusiastic about this news subject.
It was already bad enough that, even with Samsung about to call KT to court, most of the legal tussles it is involved in have it as a defendant instead of a plaintiff.
Lee Maeng-hee, the eldest son of Samsung's founder, filed the complaint with the Seoul District Court and asks for a return of 8.24 million shares in Samsung Life Insurance.
Going by today's price, that is the same as 717 billion won ($638.13 million / 485 million Euro). The complaint also demands 20 Samsung Stocks and an extra 100 million won ($89,000 / 67,690 Euro).
"The concerned stocks of Samsung Life and the life insurance firm itself were assets put in a trust under the name of non-heirs, and they should have been apportioned to the heirs according to law," the elder Lee said in the court records.
"Upon our father's death, Chairman Lee did not inform peer heirs and heiresses of the trust and unilaterally put them under his own name."