By Kim Sung-jin
Staff Reporter


The prosecution Thursday banned seven to eight officials from Samsung-affiliated companies from traveling overseas.

The officials are suspected of working on the illicit transfer of wealth from Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee to his children.

The Seoul District Public Prosecutors’ Office said Thursday that it imposed the overseas travel ban on Samsung Group restructuring office officials and former Samsung Everland executives who carried out chairman Lee’s illegal wealth transfer scheme in November 1996.

However, the prosecutors did not include chairman Lee and his only son Jae-yong on the travel ban list.

``We prohibited overseas travel for people whose absence would create a glitch in the investigation into the Samsung Everland case,’’ said the prosecutors’ office.

The prosecution decided to recruit one more prosecutor to conduct a thorough investigation into the case.

``The documented investigation records for the case are voluminous, amounting to 15,000 pages, thus we will have to focus only on examining the records until mid-October,’’ it said.

The Seoul Central District Court on Tuesday ruled against Samsung Everland on the selling of convertible bonds (CBs) to Samsung Electronics vice president Lee Jae-yong and his three sisters at a price far lower than fair market value, interpreting the act as an illegal father-to-son wealth transfer.

Samsung Everland, Korea’s biggest theme park operator, sold CBs, equivalent to 1.25 million shares when converted, for 7,700 won per share although the amusement park’s stock was traded for at least 85,000 won per share.

The transaction incurred an aproximate 97 billion won loss for the unlisted theme park operator.

sjkim@koreatimes.co.kr