As per the latest regulatory filing made by the South Korean giant on Friday, Samsung Electronics paid its indicted Group Chief Jay Y. Lee a sum total of $1.02 million at flagship in Q4 of 2016. The filings were submitted under the compensation disclosure policy at the company which requires disclosure of compensation paid to executives who sit on the board and are paid at least 500 million won on an annual basis.
The latter joined the board in October only and hence any money received prior to his appointment or by any other source is non-traceable. He has been Vice Chairman of Samsung since December 2012 and is among the key shareholders of Samsung’s financial services subsidiary, owning 11 percent of Samsung SDS.
In addition, Jay Y.Lee refused to accept any payments post his arrest on February 17th. However, as the part of company policy, the published compensation package for Lee includes 476 million won in wages equivalent to three months’ pay from October through December.
Since the advent of the case, the compensation for Lee has been under the light for the first time. He is currently being detained at the Seoul Detention Centre for allegedly being involved in a corruption scandal that shook the entire nation and led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-Hye.
Subsequent to his arrest, Samsung admitted to making contributions to two non-profit foundations allegedly controlled by Choi and her Germany-based firm but denied such contributions were related to the 2015 merger. He even denied the long list of offenses he is charged with at the preliminary hearing of the case.
As the Vice- Chairman, Lee is the de-facto leader of the company and is responsible for making important strategic decisions. Lee’s image was first scarred by the Note 7 scandal and then, by Samsung’s alleged involvement with this highly publicised corruption case involving the South Korean President.
