Samsung heir's corruption trial has no impact on profits

Seoul

THE heir to the Samsung empire faces the verdict in his corruption trial on Friday, which threatens to leave the world's biggest smartphone maker rudderless for more than a decade.

Lee Jae-Yong, vice-chairman of Samsung Electronics and the son of Samsung group chairman Lee Kun-Hee, has been groomed all his life to take over the giant conglomerate founded by his grandfather in 1938. It is by far the largest of the chaebols, the family-controlled firms that dominate Asia's fourth-largest economy, which some South Koreans self-mockingly dub the "Republic of Samsung".

Its turnover is equivalent to a fifth of the national GDP and it has long had close, opaque connections with political authorities. But now prosecutors have demanded a 12-year sentence for Samsung's 49-year-old "crown prince" if he is convicted of c…