Court rejects arrest warrant for BioLogics CEO

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Court rejects arrest warrant for BioLogics CEO

A Seoul court on Saturday rejected an arrest warrant for the head of Samsung BioLogics, who is under suspicion of abetting the destruction of evidence related to an accounting scandal.

The Seoul Central District Court said “there is room for dispute” over Samsung BioLogics CEO Kim Tae-han’s supposed role in destroying evidence of the company’s alleged window dressing in 2015.

The court, however, approved arrest warrants for two vice presidents of Samsung Electronics, the flagship unit, on allegations of destroying and manipulating evidences related to the accounting scandal.

The financial watchdog last year ruled Samsung BioLogics violated accounting rules in 2015 by inflating the value of affiliate Samsung Bioepis, but BioloLogics said it complied with international accounting standards.

The investigation has gained steam after prosecutors discovered a computer server and tens of notebooks concealed under the floor of a Samsung BioLogics plant in Incheon, west of Seoul, in a raid earlier this month.

Two senior executives of Samsung Electronics as well as two executives of Samsung Bioepis have been put into pretrial detention over the past month on suspicion of destroying and manipulating evidence related to the BioLogics case.

The widening probe into Samsung’s biopharmaceutical unit is a burden on Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, who is awaiting the Supreme Court’s ruling on his bribery case.

Lee, the de facto leader of Korea’s top conglomerate, was released from prison in February last year after being locked up for nearly a year on charges of providing bribes to Choi Soon-sil.

Yonhap
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