SEOUL, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Documents have been found in the presidential Blue House of South Korea to favor the transfer of management control to Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong from his ailing father Chairman Lee Kun-hee.
Presidential spokesman Park Soo-hyun told a press briefing on Thursday that 504 documents, which were compiled under the impeached President Park Geun-hye, were discovered from one of the offices of the Blue House.
The 504 documents, which were written from March 2014 to October 2016, included those about whether and how the Park government would intervene in the merger of two affiliates of Samsung Group, the country's largest family-controlled conglomerate.
Secret documents, compiled under the previous administration, were first found on July 14, after which hundreds of additional documents were discovered from multiple offices of the Blue House.
Documents about the Samsung merger were forecast to influence the ongoing trial on the Samsung heir, who has been in custody over bribery charge involving the impeached president and her longtime confidante Choi Soon-sil.
A presidential official, who declined to be identified, told Xinhua that the Samsung documents were about granting favors to Samsung's father-to-son management succession.
Vice Chairman Lee was charged with donating tens of millions of U.S. dollars to two non-profit foundations controlled by Choi, who was at the center of the corruption scandal embroiling former President Park.
Samsung also provided financial assistance for an equestrian training of Choi's daughter, while offering millions of euros to a German company owned by Choi.
The donation was suspected of being made in return for getting support in the merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries in July 2015, which was extremely important to the younger Lee to inherit management control from his father Chairman Lee Kun-hee who has been hospitalized for over three years.
Ousted President Park was suspected of ordering the former health and welfare minister to pressure the National Pension Service (NPS) into voting for the Samsung merger. The NPS was then the biggest shareholder of Samsung C&T, a construction and trade unit which in effect became the holding company of Samsung Group after the merger.
The impeached leader and the Samsung heir met face-to-face around the time of the merger.
