According to the Financial Times (FT), “After months of investigating, a special prosecutor last week [17 April] concluded that Mr Lee, the chairman, breached his financial duty by letting his children buy bonds of Samsung’s affiliates through irregular financial transactions, incurring losses at the companies. He also found that Samsung managed about Won4,500bn ($4.5bn) [€ 2.8 bn] in borrowed-name accounts, and Mr Lee had evaded Won112.8bn [€ 71 million] of income taxes.”

Bloomberg writes that: “The government named a special counsel to investigate allegations by a former Samsung lawyer that the group ran a bribery slush fund,” but they didn't uncover evidence of bribery.

In a televised speech announcing his resignation Lee declared, “I am saddened as there is still much to do and a long way to go, but I am leaving with all the faults of the past,” reports the FT, describing the move as “unprecedented in corporate Korea, where tycoons usually continue to run their business groups even after being convicted of serious white-collar crimes.”

However, according to the International Herald Tribune, “civic groups dismissed the resignation and several other measures announced Tuesday as a shrewd public relations stunt designed to keep Lee out of prison […] and lambasted the special counsel for failing to delve deeper into allegations of embezzlement and bribery.”

Yonhap News writes that if found guilty, the Samsung chairman “could face a sentence of between five years to life in jail. However, few analysts believe that the chairman will serve a jail term.”

Jae-yong, Lee’s only son, stepped down as chief customer officer to “work overseas in a ”tough environment,'' but this doesn't mean the heir apparent of the giant family-run conglomerate is gone for good,” notes the Korea Times. According to Yonhap News, the key question surrounding Samsung, the biggest industrial conglomerate in South Korea, is: “When will the only son of the senior Lee take the helm of the group?”