SEOUL — Special prosecutors raided Samsung Electronics Co., a company official said Thursday, as part of a widening investigation into a slush fund scandal at the country's largest conglomerate.
Two officials from a special investigation team came to the headquarters of Samsung Electronics in Suwon, 30 miles south of Seoul, said James Chung, a spokesman for Samsung Electronics. He did not elaborate.
Companies run by Samsung Group vary from construction and shipbuilding to technology. Samsung Electronics is its flagship corporation.
Prosecutors and investigators were searching for documents related to the creation of a slush fund, Yonhap news agency reported. Cable news channel YTN also carried a similar report.
Special prosecutors could not be immediately reached to confirm the raid.
Separately, prosecutors summoned and were questioning Samsung Group Vice Chairman Lee Hak-soo on Thursday, Yim Jun-seok, a Samsung spokesman said, confirming reports by Yonhap and YTN.
The probe started last month after Kim Yong-chul, a former top legal affairs official at Samsung, alleged that the conglomerate created a $211 million slush fund to bribe government officials, judges and prosecutors and purchase works of art.
Samsung has denied the allegations.
Investigators have already raided several Samsung-related facilities, including an office used by Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee.
Investors shrugged off news of the raid, sending shares in Samsung Electronics, South Korea's largest company, 3.3 per cent higher to 593,000 won ($627). The gain was just off the pace set by the Korean Exchange's main stock benchmark, which rose 4 per cent.
Huge South Korean industrial groups, known as chaebol, have regularly been accused of wielding their economic might to influence government decisions.
