Appointment Meddling

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The latest evidence in the scandal points to a possibility that Choi Soon-sil meddled in the naming of a Samsung executive as head of the Korea Equestrian Federation. Here’s more.

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In November 2014, Samsung announced its plan to hand over its four subsidiaries including a petrochemical company to Hanwha. Samsung says that one of the preconditions for the deal was that Samsung would take over the Korea Equestrian Federation, which had been headed by Hanwha.

[Soundbite] Staff at Samsung Group(Voice modified) : "One of the preconditions of the dealfor selling our subsidiaries to Hanwha was taking over the Korea Equestrian Federation."

Hanwha has denied the speculation. However, Hanwha said it had wanted to sever its ties with the Equestrian Federation after controversy arose over Choi Soon-sil's daughter, Chung Yoo-ra, becoming a national equestrian athlete in early 2014.

[Soundbite] Staff at Hanwha Group(Voice modified) : "We wanted to hand over the Equestrian Federationto any other corporation, not just Samsung."

Meanwhile, testimonies have been obtained that Choi Soon-sil did meddle in having Samsung take over the Equestrian Federation.The testimonies say that at the time Choi openly spoke about Samsung becoming the next chief of the federation.

[Soundbite] Park Jong-so(Fmr. Chairman, Korea Equestrian Federation) : "Choi Soon-sil said that the federation would be headedby Samsung. Nobody believed it, but it happened."

After Samsung took over the Equestrian Federation, it paid roughly 3.1 million U.S. dollars to Choi and her daughter personally. Speculations surrounding Samsung and its ties to Choi Soon-sil continue to rise, as many find it strange that Samsung willingly paid a large amount of money to certain individuals in the equestrian field after cutting funding for its soccer and baseball teams after 2014.