Despite the fact that the majority of people know Samsung for their Android smartphones, the South Korean giant is involved in so much more than that. it’s not just electrical appliances, either as in South Korea at least, Samsung is involved in all sorts of different industries. In a business like this, there’s obviously a lot of money that’s going around, and it looks like there could be a case of Insider Trading currently under investigation in South Korea.
According to Yonhap News, out of South Korea, nine executives from Samsung bought up to 50 Billion Won (around $43 Million USD) of stock in Cheil Industries just before the company was combined with another by Samsung in May of this year. After that deal went ahead, stock prices in Cheil Industries increased dramatically after this announcement. Things get messy here as Cheil Industries is a prominent part of the overall Samsung Group, and it counts members of the Samsung founding family as major shareholders. The company itself is involved in a number of different industries, with textiles and fashion being just one of them.
The deal in question surrounded the merging of Samsung C&T (Construction and Trading) with the aforementioned Cheil Industries and some thought it was unfair. Samsung C&T was put together in 1983 as a sort of parent company for the rest of the Samsung Group, and the merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries was seen by many as a seizing of power by Lee Jae-yong who know has a majority ownership in the newly-formed Samsung C&T. The Samsung Group has long held a history of strange deals like these, and with Lee Jae-yong looking to solidify his position as the “heir” to the Samsung empire it’s unsurprising to see more of these deals. Whether or not the executives did engage in insider trading will be decided by South Korea’s finance regulator, but the timing sure does seem interesting to say the least. Regardless, for a lot of executives and board members who have been involved with Samsung for years now, it will be business as usual.