South Korea's financial regulator has launched an investigation into possible insider trading by Samsung executives.
Kim Hong-sik, a senior official at the Financial Supervisory Commission, says South Korea's stock exchange reported the suspected insider trading or share manipulation.
South Korea's Yonhap News reported that nine Samsung executives purchased as much as 50 billion won ($A58.5 million) of Cheil Industries stock before Samsung announced a merger between Cheil and another Samsung company in May.
Shares of Cheil, which has Samsung's founding family members as majority shareholders, surged after the announcement.
Kim said the investigation was related to the merger but declined to discuss other details because the matter was under investigation.
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