A local court on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for a Samsung Electronics executive charged with ordering the destruction of evidence related to alleged accounting fraud at the company's biopharmaceutical affiliate.

The Seoul Central District Court granted the prosecution's warrant request for the senior executive vice president, surnamed Lee, citing the seriousness of the case and saying that the charges against him have been largely validated.

The court also acknowledged a need to detain the suspect in light of the possibility that he may attempt to destroy evidence. 

Prosecutors say Lee decided at a company meeting on May 5, 2018, to manipulate and destroy accounting data and internal documents belonging to the drug manufacturer Samsung BioLogics and its subsidiary, Samsung Bioepis, ahead of an accounting fraud probe.

Samsung BioLogics is suspected of inflating the value of Samsung Bioepis before an initial public offering in 2016.

The court rejected an arrest warrant for another senior executive vice president, surnamed Ahn, who allegedly attended the meeting with Lee in May last year.