South Korea's Ex-Health Minister Guilty of Swaying Samsung Vote

Moon Hyung-pyo.

Photographer: Yonhap/EPA
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Seoul, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea's former health minister was convicted on Thursday of pressuring the country's pension fund to support a controversial Samsung merger, in one of the first rulings on key players in the corruption scandals that ensnared the country's ousted president and Samsung's heir.

The merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries in 2015 was crucial in Samsung's father-to-son leadership succession, but U.S. hedge fund Elliott Associates and other minority shareholders opposed the plan arguing that it would unfairly benefit Samsung founding family members.