Samsung heiress death 'a suicide'

[Christopher]

Wow, very shocking -- from CNN:

SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) -- Lee Yoon-hyung, an heiress to the wealthy family that controls South Korea's Samsung Group, has committed suicide at the age of 26, a company official said on Monday. As with most things related to the secretive family that controls huge swathes of the country's business, the unfolding story of her death, with more than a hint of mystery, has gripped South Korea. Last week, newspapers ran front-page articles saying Lee the youngest daughter of Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee, died in a traffic accident in New York, where she was attending graduate school.

But on Monday papers reported Lee had hanged herself with an electrical cord at her New York apartment, citing local police and medical examiners' reports. Samsung spokesman Yim Jun-seok confirmed that Lee's death was a suicide.

"At the time the story initially broke, we had an insufficient amount of information," he said by telephone.

After later learning about the actual cause of death, company officials did not correct initial reports out of respect for the family and due to the personal nature of the episode, he added.

"It was a tragic incident and the family was already suffering from it."

The heiress once enjoyed popularity in South Korea when she started a personal Web site called "Pretty Yoon-hyung" that described what is was like to be a daughter in a family that ran the country's top conglomerate. Lee shared her father's passion for fast cars and was working to increase her knowledge of art in order to help run Samsung's cultural foundation, local media reported. But newspapers speculated Lee, a graduate student at New York University, may have been suffering from depression.

Lee had shares in company affiliates worth about 179 billion won ($171.9 million), according to Medias Equitables, an Internet site that provides information on individual shareholders. The suicide comes at a difficult time for the family of the Samsung Group, which had combined sales of 135.5 trillion won in 2004, equivalent to more than one-sixth of South Korea's annual gross domestic product. The business practices of South Korean conglomerates, where a family often controls the group through a complex web of shareholdings, have come under increasing scrutiny.

Last month, two Samsung executives were given suspended jail terms over a deal that helped the children of the chairman Lee buy a majority stake in an affiliate through bonds bought at below-market prices.

Lee Kun-hee has also been in the United States since September to receive treatment at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where he underwent surgery for lung cancer in 2000, according to media reports.

The Samsung chairman's departure also coincided with a request from a parliamentary committee for him to testify over alleged irregularities at a former Samsung automobile unit.

[Guest Stuge]

It seams to be some conspiracy to me.But Police say sucide..

Quite shocking

[Ascariss]

It's wierd how rich people who have all the money in the world, suffer depression more often than regular folk. Seriously though, this is a blow to the firm and family. One thing though remains, did she commint suicide because of the depression or some other factor?

[Zizone_]

isn't this like a year ago?

Samsung's founder acutally has multiple sons. So once Korean's called war between princes when the founder died to get hold of the company.