"Samsung Electronics and SK hynix chiefs accused of breach of trust over performance bonuses tied to operating profit"... police begin probe into shareholder group's complaint
- Input
- 2026-08-05 11:19:36
- Updated
- 2026-08-05 11:19:36
On the 5th, the Korea Shareholder Action Headquarters said the complaint against Samsung Electronics CEOs Jun Young-hyun and Roh Tae-moon, as well as SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung, on charges including breach of trust under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, had been assigned to the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency.
The group had previously submitted a complaint on the 22nd of last month to the National Office of Investigation, arguing that the executives accepted demands for performance bonuses tied to operating profit without sufficiently reviewing the labor agreement and created a structure that allowed company assets to leak out.
The group reportedly argued that linking bonuses to a preset share of pre-tax operating profit is illegal, and that any outflow of company funds is a matter for a shareholders' meeting resolution and cannot be subject to autonomous labor-management bargaining.
Regarding Samsung Electronics, the group pointed out that the CEOs signed an agreement without legal review that set aside about 12% of business performance as the bonus pool. As for SK hynix, it said the company created a structure that allocated 10% of operating profit to bonuses even without strike pressure, and that in February it spent more than 470 billion won on the bonus pool.
The group also filed a complaint the same day with the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) against Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon on charges of abuse of authority to obstruct the exercise of rights and coercion. It said Kim intervened in the labor dispute at Samsung Electronics in May and pushed for a tentative agreement over the bonus issue, which it argued could not be subject to collective bargaining.
The Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Unit of the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency and the CIO plan to examine the exact circumstances of the cases and determine whether any laws were violated.
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