Samsung chief indicted by his sister over father's inheritance

The chairman of South Korean electronics giant Samsung, Lee Kun-hee, is being litigated by his sister.

Lee Sook-hee submitted the file case against Mr. Lee, 70, over shares their late father left, her lawyer told AFP on Tuesday.

She is claiming the take back of assets valued around 190bn won ($169m, £107m), said Yonhap news agency.

The suit is along the same directions as one filed two weeks earlier by Mr. Lee's brother, Lee Maeng-hee, 80, Ms Lee's lawyer said.

The elder Mr. Lee's suit is for 700bn won ($623m; £396m) in shares in the group's flagship, Samsung Electronics, and Samsung Life Insurance, over and above in cash.

As per to court records filed by Lee Maeng-hee, "the stocks... were assets put in a conviction under the name of non-heirs, and they should have been allocated to the inheritors according to law".

Lee Kun-hee is blamed of keeping the shares for himself.

This is a tale to struggle with the most fascinating of Korean television dramas, says the BBC's correspondent in Seoul, Lucy Williamson, with charges of underground shares inside South Korea's most profitable electronics company.

"We recognized that the issued of inheritance has long since been matured," a Samsung group spokesman told AFP without further aspects.

The siblings' father Lee Byung-chull, who passed away in 1987, established Samsung selling dried fish in South Korea in 1938.

The Samsung Group now contains shipbuilding, telecoms, electronics and construction among its companies, and had revenue of $220bn in 2010.

Last month, Samsung Electronics detailed a 17% increase in takings for the last three months of 2011.

Lee Kun-Hee acquired the chairmanship of Samsung in 1987. But, in April 2008, he resigned in scandal after being alleged with tax avoidance and infringe of confidence. 

He was found guilty on the tax allegations, but was given a presidential pardon in 2009 and come back to run Samsung in 2010.

According to the 2010 Forbes Rich List, he was the richest man in South Korea with a private wealth of $7.9bn.