The heirs to South Korea's Samsung conglomerate have announced plans to pay a £7.8 billion inheritance tax bill, despite giving away a £1.3 billion art collection.
The settlement, one of the world's largest ever, comes after the death of the former chairman Lee Kun-hee, who was the country's richest man when he died last October aged 78, leaving an estimated £14.2 billion.
In a rare public statement on Wednesday, the family noted that the bill was 'equivalent to three to four times the [South Korean] government's total estate tax revenue last year.'
The announcement, and the donation of artworks to help reduce the tax bill, is designed to soothe public anger at a corruption scandal which has seen Kun-hee's only son Lee Jae-yong jailed for bribery and embezzlement.
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