Agencies:

Seoul: South Korean prosecutors on Thursday sought an arrest warrant for Samsung Electronics' Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, an heir apparent of the Samsung Group, over accounting fraud.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office asked a Seoul court to arrest the heir of Samsung Group, the country's biggest family-controlled conglomerate, on charges of illegal trading and market price manipulation under a capital market act and accounting fraud under an act on external audit of corporation.

The country's financial regulator ruled in November 2018 that the biopharmaceutical unit of Samsung Group violated accounting rules, referring the case to the prosecution office for criminal investigation.