Samsung's pharma branch fined for accounting breach worth $4 bn

The pharmaceutical arm of giant South Korean conglomerate Samsung was fined on Wednesday for alleged accounting breaches amounting to nearly $4 billion, and had dealings in its shares suspended indefinitely.
 

Contract drugmaker Samsung BioLogics is the third-biggest firm of its kind in the world by market share, and one of the South's 10 most valuable companies.
 

It has a market capitalisation of 22 trillion won ($19 billion), even after a 30 per cent decline over the past month as the scandal deepened.
 

The Incheon-based firm "intentionally" violated accounting rules in 2015, a year ahead of its IPO, by inflating the