Dubai: India’s Supreme Court has asked Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee to appear before a Ghaziabad court in a cheating case dating back in 2001.
The cheating case, filed last week, by an Indian exporter to a Dubai company acting on behalf of Samsung’s subsidiary in Dubai, which found a bill of exchange endorsed to it being dishonoured by Samsung.
Samsung is accused of failing to pay $1.4 million to JCE Consultancy, one of its suppliers.
The court had asked the South Korean billionaire Kung-hee to surrender before the Ghaziabad court within six weeks (May 11, 2014). Failing this may force the court to issue an arrest warrant against Kun-hee.
“This case is related to a multimillion dollar fraud scheme perpetrated against a Samsung subsidiary in Dubai,” Samsung said in a statement.
This comes after Kun-hee approached the apex court seeking that a criminal case and non-bailable warrants issued against him be quashed.
The Allahabad High Court, dismissing a similar petition from Samsung in 2013, had called the Samsung Chairman an absconder and fugitive.
Kun-hee was embroiled in a major corruption scandal in South Korea in 2008 where Samsung was accused of bribing judges, prosecutors and politicians in South Korea.
As a part of the investigation, Kun-hee had resigned in 2008 and was convicted by a district court which found him guilty of financial wrong-doing and tax evasion. Later, however, the South Korean President granted Lee Kun-hee an official pardon, following which he resumed the office of chairman of Samsung Electronics.
— With inputs from agencies
