Prosecutors have recently questioned a senior CJ Group executive as part of a probe into whether the conglomerate was involved in the recording of compromising videos of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee, a prosecution source said Sunday.

The videos leaked to the media in July 2016 indicated Lee bought sex five times between December 2011 and June 2013 at his homes in southern Seoul.

CJ, run by Lee‘s relatives, was part of Samsung before it broke off in 1993. At the time of the recording, the two groups were locked in a legal dispute over assets left by Samsung founder Lee Byung-chull. 

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office has recently summoned an executive vice president of CJ HelloVision as a witness to the case, the source said.

The executive, identified only by his surname Sung, told prosecutors that the group has nothing to do with the recording of the clips. The recording is believed to have been masterminded by a former CJ employee, who is now in custody over the case.

According to CJ, the former worker approached Sung and demanded money, but he refused. Samsung is suspected to have paid to the suspect after he threatened to reveal the materials.

Sung is said to have controlled financial affairs of the nation‘s 14th largest business group over the past 10  years. In 2013, he received a suspended three-year prison term for managing CJ Chairman Lee Jay-hyun’s slush funds. (Yonhap)