Hotel Shilla CEO Lee Boo-jin/Courtesy of Hotel Shilla

Raid continues longer than 8 hours

The police raided a cosmetic clinic on March 23 following the news report that Hotel Shilla chief Lee Boo-jin, also Samsung Group heiress, abused an addictive drug of propofol in 2016

Police officers raided the clinic in southern Seoul to start probes 6:30 p.m., which continued longer than eight hours through 3 a.m. the next day.

Last week, a local media outlet dubbed News Tapa reported an interview with a former nurse of the hospital at issue. During January to October in 2016, the nurse claimed that Lee was administered propofol for non-medical purposes at least twice a month.

She also said, “As far as I remember, she made contacts with the hospital three or four times a month,” to take propofol shots.

In response, Lee’s side immediately denied any wrongdoing as Hotel Shilla published a press release to counter that the billionaire businesswoman visited the clinic for legitimate treatment.

Propofol is a short-acting and sedative-hypnotic agent, which induces and maintains anesthesia. Misuse of the medicine can be fatal as demonstrated by the 2009 Michael Jackson case _ it was blamed in the death of the American pop icon.

Korea designated it as a psychotropic drug in 2011 as an increasing number of people have become addicted to it. Subsequently, it is unlawful here to prescribe or consume the drug for recreational purposes.

Lee is the eldest daughter of bed-ridden Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee. The 49-year-old is also a younger sister of Samsung Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, who currently leads the country’s top conglomerate.

New accusation

News Tapa came up with a new report on fresh suspicions _ the nurse said that she had reported the case to the police last summer. Back then, however, the police did not investigate the case.
In the meanwhile, News Tapa came up with a new report on fresh suspicions _ the nurse said that she had reported the case to the police last summer. Back then, however, the police did not investigate the case.

Besides, some major newspapers in Korea seem to be reluctant to cover the stories as they hardly came up with related articles. This compares to other cases associated with propofol and celebrities where big newspapers vehemently covered them, observers point out.

 

Related stories

Tragedy of Samsung family

Lee Boo-jin accused of propofol abuse

 
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