From left, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Samsung Group heir-apparent Lee Jae-yong and Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin take the oath during a parliamentary investigation of their companies’ alleged involvement in a scandal. (Jung Yeon-Je/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong, arguably South Korea’s most powerful man, sat like a chastened schoolboy before the National Assembly on Tuesday while angry lawmakers reprimanded him one after another.

Used to being treated like royalty, Lee instead was the primary focus of lawmakers as they grilled him, sometimes shouting, for an extraordinary 13 hours over the conglomerate’s role in a widening political scandal that threatens to bring down the South Korean president.

“I am embarrassed to be involved in the incident,” Lee, 48, told them during the unprecedented hearing, at which the heads of nine leading conglomerates, known as chaebol, were called to account.

“We should have been a better example as a South Korean company,” said Lee, who is the de facto head of Samsung. His father technically remains company president even though he has been unconscious in a hospital for 2½ years.

Conglomerates including Samsung, LG and Hyundai Motor are accused of involvement in a cash-for-favors scheme in which they donated about $70 million to two foundations established by a confidante of President Park Geun-hye. The confidante, Choi Soon-sil, has been charged with fraud, bribery and abuse of power for allegedly siphoning off the money for her own purposes and is in custody.

[In South Korea, Samsung prepares to crown third-generation ‘emperor’]

The debacle has led to huge protests in South Korea calling on Park to resign, and the National Assembly is set to vote Friday on impeachment. Park has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly apologized for causing a disruption. She is refusing to step down.

Lawmakers asked the business leaders Tuesday whether Park’s office had pressured them into making the donations and whether they had received any special treatment in return.

Some admitted that the donations were not exactly voluntary.

“It is hard to ignore a request from the government. That’s the reality in South Korea,” said Hur Chang-soo, chairman of GS Group and the head of the Federation of Korean Industries, the big-business lobby group that is accused of coordinating the donations.

LG Group Chairman Koo Bon-moo concurred. “Businesses have no choice but to comply with government policies,” he said, according to local reports of the marathon hearing, which was broadcast live.

But it is Samsung, the biggest of all the conglomerates, that is at the center of the allegations about too-cozy links between big business and the presidential Blue House. And it was the center of attention Tuesday.

Samsung is accused of giving $26 million to Choi and a $1 million horse to her daughter, and prosecutors have raided its headquarters looking for evidence for their case.

The donations, made last year, came as Samsung was merging two units, Samsung C&T Corp. and Cheil Industries, a move widely viewed as part of a plan for the Lee family to cement its control over the group.

[South Korea’s president offers to resign if demanded by lawmakers]

The Lees needed the support of the National Pension Service, a major shareholder, for the merger to go through. Prosecutors allege that Samsung made the donations to Choi in return for her ensuring that the deal happened, despite the objections of smaller shareholders.

But Lee told lawmakers Tuesday that the merger was conducted for business purposes only and that it had nothing to do with family control.

“Samsung has never ever made any donation anticipating business favors in return,” he said, according to local reports.

The head of Lotte, a retail group that sells confectionery items and operates department stores, also denied making politically motivated donations. It paid about $6 million to Choi’s foundations, according to prosecutors, but Chairman Shin Dong-bin denied lawmakers’ allegations that this was linked to Lotte’s application for licenses to operate duty-free shops in Seoul. The application was later denied.

The scandal — which looks set to continue for months after Park said Tuesday that she would not step down even if the National Assembly impeaches her Friday — is taking its toll on the South Korean economy.

The consumer sentiment index, a key barometer for how the economy is faring, fell to its lowest level in more than seven years last month, according to the Bank of Korea.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development became the latest group to cut its growth forecast for South Korea when it said last week that it expected the economy to expand by only 2.6 percent next year, down from its previous projection of 3 percent.

The Korea Economic Research Institute expects only 2.2 percent growth next year, and the South Korean government is expected to have to lower its official forecast of 3 percent.

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