The National Pension Service filed a damages suit against Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Samsung C&T, claiming losses from the merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, and the case will be heard on the 19th.
According to legal sources, the Seoul Central District Court Civil Agreement Division 21 (Presiding Judge Jeong Yong-sin) will hold the first hearing at 2:50 p.m. on the damages suit filed by the National Pension Service against Chairman Lee and Samsung C&T. The claim amount totals 510 million won.
The National Pension Service filed the case in September 2024, 10 months before the statute of limitations for damages suits would expire.
Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries resolved on May 26, 2015, to merge at a ratio of 1 to 0.35. The merger plan passed at an extraordinary shareholders meeting in July of the same year.
At the time, the National Pension Service, which held 11.21% equity in Samsung C&T, supported the merger, and then–Minister of Health and Welfare Moon Hyung-pyo and then–National Pension Service Fund Management Division Head Hong Wan-sun received final sentences of two years and six months in prison for pressuring support for the merger.
Chairman Lee also received a final sentence of two years and six months in prison on charges of giving bribes to former President Park Geun-hye to seek help with Samsung's management succession and governance restructuring. However, charges that, for the purpose of management succession, he planned and pushed the Samsung C&T–Cheil Industries merger through the Future Strategy Office and committed accounting fraud and unfair transactions were finalized as not guilty at the Supreme Court in July last year.