Samsung executives jailed for tampering with evidence in fraud probe

By: Noah M.

A South Korean court slapped three Samsung Electronics executives with jail sentences Monday for their roles in tampering with evidence during an accounting fraud probe.

Computers and servers were stashed in factory floors as part of the executives’ scheme to hide evidence from authorities investigating the alleged fraud at Samsung Biologics, according to prosecutors.

A Samsung Electronics vice president will spend two years behind bars, and two presidents in a company task force got prison sentences of a year and six months, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

“The boldness of the defendants’ criminal acts was beyond the public’s imagination and stunned society,” Judge Soh Byung-seok said in handing down the sentences, according to Reuters.

The fraud probe stemmed from allegations that the value of Samsung Biologics, a biopharmaceutical manufacturer, had been inflated by about $3.8 billion in 2015.

The executives, who have not been identified, ordered workers to hide and destroy internal documents while authorities investigated an alleged accounting rules violation, prosecutors said.

The plot involved hiding computer servers and nearly two dozen computers and notebooks under the floors at Samsung Biologics factories near Seoul, according to authorities. The accounting fraud allegations are still under investigation, according to Yonhap.

Monday’s sentences came amid a corruption scandal that has entangled a Samsung boss and South Korea’s former president, Park Geun-hye.

Park was sentenced to 25 years behind bars last year for working with her friend Choi Soon-sil to get tens of billions of won from big conglomerates. (The won is a unit of Korean currency, and 10,000 won is worth $8.40.) Samsung leader Jay Y. Lee is charged with bribing Park for support in succession planning at the company.