“The jackpot was a success rooted in illegal actions,” broadcaster KBS reported ahead of SDS’s trading debut last November.
Chaebol watchdogs including the Center for Good Corporate Governance say the children will probably face an inheritance tax bill of about $6 billion on their father’s assets.
Samsung Group said Lee Jae Yong and his sisters were unavailable for comment.
Without Knowledge
The money should be confiscated because the younger Lees’ SDS assets derive directly from the 1999 transaction, Park said. She submitted a bill to parliament in February that would make it illegal for third-parties, even those without knowledge of a crime, to profit from illegally-attained assets. It would apply to the Lees if passed, she said.
“By passing this bill, we’ll prevent chaebol heirs from playing around with company stocks to illegally facilitate their succession,” she said.
South Korea’s largest corporate lobby group disagrees, arguing that while the public may intuitively feel that profits from illegal transactions should be confiscated, the new law would essentially reopen an old case.
“The core problem of the proposed bill is that this is a finished case,” Shin Seuk Hun, head of the corporate policy team at the Federation of Korean Industries, said by phone. The bill may also violate the constitution “by suggesting a person that has already been punished can be punished again,” he said.
Public Eye
Even chaebol watchdogs say the bill may be too radical for politicians to pass, and in that sense, it’s typical Park. No stranger to publicity, she gained prominence during an earlier career as a journalist in which she became the first South Korean to broadcast live from North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang.