South Korea Pension Chief Indicted for Perjury, Abuse of Power Over Samsung Merger

A month after his arrest, the head of Korea’s National Pension Service was indicted by prosecutors on Monday.

Moon Hyung-pyo was indicted on charges of perjury and abuse of authority. The charges are the result of an ongoing investigation into whether Mr. Moon illegally pushed the pension fund’s board to vote in favor of a merger of two Samsung affiliates.

More from the Wall Street Journal:

South Korean prosecutors on Monday indicted the head of the country’s National Pension Service, as investigators tightened their focus on a 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates that has pulled the Samsung conglomerate’s heir apparent into a wide-ranging political corruption scandal.

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Prosecutors late last month arrested Mr. Moon for allegedly illegally ordering the fund, the world’s third largest, to vote in favor of a controversial $8 billion merger of the Samsung affiliates in 2015. NPS, which held an 11% stake in Samsung C&T at the time, had the deciding vote in the deal, which strengthened the control of Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong over Samsung Electronics Co., the crown jewel of South Korea’s largest conglomerate.

The merger was opposed by proxy-advisory firms as well as by U.S. activist hedge fund Elliott Management Corp.