Samsung Family Member Is Said to Sell Up to $2.1 Billion in Shares

Attendees during a Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco in February.

Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

A Samsung Group family member has sold about 3.1 trillion won ($2.1 billion) in Samsung Electronics Co. shares, according to people familiar with the matter, in one of the biggest such offerings in South Korea.

Hong Ra-hee, the wife of the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, sold her shares for inheritance-tax purposes, the people said, asking not to be named because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.