Anchor: Samsung Group says it can not accept the special prosecutors’ move to arrest its de-facto leader Lee Jae-yong on charges of bribery in connection with the Choi Soon-sil scandal. Lee's possible arrest is stoking concerns within the group that it will leave a vacuum in the management of the country’s top conglomerate.
Mina Cha has more.
 
Report: Samsung Group is mired in a state of angst ahead of the court’s scheduled decision on whether or not to approve an arrest warrant for Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong.

As it scrambled to devise contingency plans in the event of a worst-case scenario, the group even canceled a weekly meeting of Samsung affiliate presidents slated for Wednesday.

Lee and his attorneys are known to have been preparing for the warrant hearing scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at the Seoul Central District Court early Wednesday.

While some believe his arrest is inevitable, voices against his arrest are being raised, with some arguing that it is not right to arrest the head of a global corporation when there is no risk of him destroying evidence or running away. Others also say the court should not be swayed by the public.

Samsung is said to be preparing to put in place an emergency management system in the event his arrest is approved, in which CEOs of each Samsung affiliate will draft separates plans.

Heads of business lobby groups, such as Park Sung-taek, the chairman of the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business, urged the independent counsel team to investigate Lee without detention, citing potential adverse effects of his arrest on the economy.
 
[Sound bite: Park Sung-taek, Chairman of the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business (Korean)]
“I think it will cause massive losses not only to the company in question but also to the national economy.”
 
However, Kim Sung-jin, a lawyer and a senior official of the local civic group People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, contends that Lee’s arrest will serve as an opportunity to reform conglomerates and eventually benefit the South Korean economy.

[Sound bite Kim Sung-jin, lawyer (Korean)]
“If we use this as an opportunity to show that even the heads of the conglomerates can also be punished for their wrongdoings, it will be rather helpful to the revival of the economy.”
 
In the meantime, Samsung Electronics has been excluded from the list of the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations to be presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos for the first time in four years.
Mina Cha, KBS World Radio News.