Lee Kun-hee, chairman of South Korea's tech behemoth Samsung Electronics, died at the age of 78 in Seoul on Sunday, leaving his heirs faced with a huge inheritance tax for succession, Xinhua reports.
Samsung said in a statement that Lee passed away with his family by his side, including Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong, the senior Lee's only son and an heir apparent.
"Chairman Lee was a true visionary who transformed Samsung into the world-leading innovator and industrial powerhouse from a local business," Samsung said.
Lee, chief of Samsung Group, the country's biggest family-owned conglomerate of which business portfolio ranges from tech and insurance to construction and amusement park, had been bedridden since he suffered a heart attack in May 2014.
Lee, the son of Samsung Group's founder Lee Byung-chul, was born in January 1942. He went to Japan for education and graduated from Waseda University with a business major in 1965. He finished George Washington University's MBA program and joined Samsung in 1966. He was promoted to vice chairman of Samsung C&T, a construction unit of Samsung Group, in 1978, and became the vice chairman of the group the following year.
Lee became the group chairman at the age of 45 after the founder's death in 1987, and announced his trademark "New Management" business philosophy in 1993.
The group's assets at about eight trillion won (6.9 billion U.S. dollars) in 1987 advanced to almost 500 trillion won (443 billion U.S. dollars) as of now, according to Yonhap news agency.
In 2008, Lee was indicted by special prosecutors on charges of operating slush fund and departed from management.
He was sentenced by a Seoul district court to three years in prison suspended for five years on charges of evading tax, but he got a presidential pardon in December 2009 before being reinstated as Samsung Electronics chairman in early 2010.
With Lee's death, his wife Hong Ra-hee, his only son Jae-yong and two daughters Boo-jin and Seo-hyun would be faced with a hefty tax to inherit Lee's stakes in Samsung affiliates worth over 18 trillion won (16 billion U.S. dollars) in terms of the Friday closing price, according to Yonhap.
Yonhap reported that the inheritance tax was estimated at as high as 10.6 trillion won (9.4 billion U.S. dollars).
Jae-yong has been the de-facto leader of the conglomerate since his father was hospitalized, but the Samsung Electronics vice chairman has been involved in a management succession scandal.
The 52-year-old was indicted last month on charges of accounting fraud and stock price manipulation in the merger of two Samsung affiliates, Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, in 2015.
He already served about one year in prison for his involvement in a political scandal that led to the impeachment of former South Korean President Park Geun-hye.
Lee was released from jail in February 2018 as an appellate court handed the Samsung heir a suspended sentence, but the top court ordered a review of the suspended sentence.
