S. Korea's ex-health minister guilty of swaying Samsung vote

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's former health minister was convicted on Thursday of pressuring the country's pension fund to support a controversial Samsung merger, in one of the first rulings on key players in the corruption scandals that ensnared the country's ousted president and Samsung's heir.

The merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries in 2015 was crucial in Samsung's father-to-son leadership succession, but U.S. hedge fund Elliott Associates and other minority shareholders opposed the plan arguing that it would unfairly benefit Samsung founding family members.

The allegations that the pension fund, which manages $508 billion for South Koreans' post-retirement, supported the controversial Samsung merger despite financial damages angered public and it was one of the reasons that prompted South Koreans to stage massive demonstrations for months last fall.