SC orders Samsung chief to be in court
3 April 2014 11:39 PM GMT
A bench of Justices C K Prasad and P C Ghose, however, directed that the arrest warrant against 72-year-old Lee, whose net worth is $11.3 billion, for his non-appearance in the case before the trial court will not be executed for a period of six weeks.
‘In the meanwhile, the petitioner shall appear before the trial court in seisin (hearing) of the case and seek bail and/ or exemption from appearance in accordance with law,’ it added. The court made it clear that it was not expressing any opinion on the merits of the case pending before the trial court against Lee, who is also chairman of the Samsung Group as a whole, which accounts for 20 per cent of South Korea’s GDP. Recently, Lee Kun-hee presided over Samsung’s rise as the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer, after the gamble of tying up with US multinational technology giant Google for the use of its Android operating system reaped for it unprecedentedly rich dividends on a global scale. The Supreme Court bench passed the order on an appeal filed by Lee challenging the Allahabad High Court’s order dismissing his plea for setting aside the arrest warrant issued against him. The case is related to a complaint filed by JCE Consultancy against Lee in the Ghaziabad court for allegedly cheating it of $1.4 million.
Lee then approached the HC and SC for quashing of the FIR against him but his plea was rejected by both courts. Finally, the trial court issued the arrest warrant against him for not appearing before it in the case and after the latest Supreme Court order, all international eyes are on India and on Samsung to see the outcome of this extraordinary development in law and international corporate affairs. Reacting to SC order, Samsung said, ‘There are no grounds, let alone evidence, to support the accusation against Chairman Lee.’
‘Samsung dodged $1.4-mn payments’
The alleged irregularities by the MNC dated back to 2001-02, when JCE Consultancy signed a pact to supply products to Sky Impex Ltd, which was to transfer the products to Samsung Gulf Electronics, Dubai, according to court documents cited by a news agency. In 2005 JCE Consultancy filed a criminal complaint, saying it had not received $1.4 million payments and named Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee among the accused. Lee sought to have the criminal proceedings dropped but the Supreme Court dismissed his petition.
‘In the meanwhile, the petitioner shall appear before the trial court in seisin (hearing) of the case and seek bail and/ or exemption from appearance in accordance with law,’ it added. The court made it clear that it was not expressing any opinion on the merits of the case pending before the trial court against Lee, who is also chairman of the Samsung Group as a whole, which accounts for 20 per cent of South Korea’s GDP. Recently, Lee Kun-hee presided over Samsung’s rise as the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer, after the gamble of tying up with US multinational technology giant Google for the use of its Android operating system reaped for it unprecedentedly rich dividends on a global scale. The Supreme Court bench passed the order on an appeal filed by Lee challenging the Allahabad High Court’s order dismissing his plea for setting aside the arrest warrant issued against him. The case is related to a complaint filed by JCE Consultancy against Lee in the Ghaziabad court for allegedly cheating it of $1.4 million.
Lee then approached the HC and SC for quashing of the FIR against him but his plea was rejected by both courts. Finally, the trial court issued the arrest warrant against him for not appearing before it in the case and after the latest Supreme Court order, all international eyes are on India and on Samsung to see the outcome of this extraordinary development in law and international corporate affairs. Reacting to SC order, Samsung said, ‘There are no grounds, let alone evidence, to support the accusation against Chairman Lee.’
‘Samsung dodged $1.4-mn payments’
The alleged irregularities by the MNC dated back to 2001-02, when JCE Consultancy signed a pact to supply products to Sky Impex Ltd, which was to transfer the products to Samsung Gulf Electronics, Dubai, according to court documents cited by a news agency. In 2005 JCE Consultancy filed a criminal complaint, saying it had not received $1.4 million payments and named Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee among the accused. Lee sought to have the criminal proceedings dropped but the Supreme Court dismissed his petition.
Next Story
