HE deal which did most to secure Lee Jae-yong's control over South Korea's biggest conglomerate threatened this week to ruin him. On January 16th special prosecutors accused Mr Lee, the only son of Samsung's chairman, Lee Kun-hee, of bribery, embezzlement and perjury. But three days later a court rejected a request to arrest him, as a suspect in an investigation into a vast influence-peddling case that led last month to the South Korean president's impeachment. It saw "no reasonable grounds" to detain him while prosecutors pursue their probe.
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