But civic groups including People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy which filed criminal complaints against Samsung in the case vowed to appeal, calling the special counsel's probe "insufficient." The so-called "e-Samsung scandal" is related to suspicions about Lee Jae-yong amassing wealth and the conglomerate's underhand transfer of group ownership to him.

Lee Jae-yong (40) launched Internet firms for e-Samsung business in 2000 as their largest shareholder. When they went belly-up, senior executives of Samsung affiliates including Cheil Communications were alleged to have purchased Lee's shares for four days in March 2001 to cover his losses.

PSPD filed a criminal complaint against Lee junior and the CEOs and auditors of nine Samsung affiliates in 2005 for causing a loss to their firms. Prosecutors began their investigation but handed the probe to the special counsel with the bulk of corruption allegations that surfaced late last year.

The special counsel concluded Samsung affiliates' purchase of Lee's shares was technically legal, considering that they followed normal procedures, including analyzing the feasibility of their purchase of his shares and getting approval from their board of directors. The special counsel also decided the Samsung affiliates made no mistake given that they outsourced auditing to an outside accounting firm to decide how much they should pay for the shares.

The team found that the affiliates suffered no loss from their purchase of Lee's shares. While the e-Samsung-affiliated Internet firms registered heavy losses at first, their business improved later, and Samsung affiliates who bought Lee’s shares were reportedly happy with their decision to buy shares cheap.

But the team discovered that Samsung’s strategic planning office, which is at the heart of slush-fund allegations, was involved in the affiliates’ takeover of the shares. The team believes that strategic planning office vice chairman Lee Hak-soo and president Kim In-joo were directly involved both in the founding and operation of e-Samsung and in the purchase of Lee's shares.

But although the office gave instruction to the affiliates to buy Lee's shares, no criminal charge can be brought because the process was legal. And although Lee junior was e-Samsung's largest shareholder, no criminal charge can be brought against him either, because there is no evidence that he has been directly involved in the management of the Internet venture since, the special counsel added.

Meanwhile, the team on Thursday summoned Lee Hak-soo for the third time to answer questions about the conglomerate's alleged bribery of political leaders and senior government officials with a slush fund allegedly under his management.

(englishnews@chosun.com )