Samsung Group leader Jay Y Lee left the South Korean special prosecutor's office this morning after over 22 hours of questioning on bribery suspicions in an influence-peddling scandal that could topple President Park Geun-hye.
Lee left the special prosecution office without answering reporters' questions.
Prosecutors have been investigating whether Samsung provided 30 billion won ($25.46m) to a business and foundations backed by Park's friend, Choi Soon-sil.
This was in exchange for the national pension fund's support for a 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates.
The special prosecutor's office said it would decide by Sunday whether to seek a warrant to arrest 48-year-old Lee, the third-generation leader of South Korea's largest conglomerate, or chaebol.
There were no plans to bring him in for further questioning.
Lee denied some of the suspicions against him but had admitted to others, said Lee Kyu-chul, a spokesman for the special prosecutors' office who declined to elaborate.
A Samsung spokeswoman also declined to comment.
The corruption scandal has engulfed the highest reaches of South Korea's elite, with Park impeached by parliament in December, a decision that must be upheld or overturned by the Constitutional Court.
Park, who has been stripped of her powers in the meantime, has denied wrongdoing.
Jay Y Lee was named as a suspect on Wednesday and summoned yesterday morning for questioning.
South Korean prosecutors were looking into whether he gave false testimony during a parliamentary hearing in early December.
There the heads of nine of South Korea's biggest chaebol were subjected to an unprecedented 13-hour televised grilling by a panel investigating the presidential scandal.
Jay Y Lee denied bribery accusations during that hearing, rejecting assertions from lawmakers that Samsung lobbied to get the fund to back the merger.
The chiefs of South Korean chaebol have over the years had prison sentences shortened or forgiven, or received pardons, with the economic impact of imprisonment cited as a factor.
Jay Y Lee's father Lee Kun-hee, who has been incapacitated since a 2014 heart attack, was handed a three-year suspended jail sentence in 2009 for tax evasion. He was later pardoned.
Shares in group flagship Samsung Electronics, the world's largest smartphone maker, ended 3.45% lower today.
Samsung has acknowledged making payments to two foundations at the centre of the scandal, as well as to a consulting firm controlled by Choi, but has repeatedly denied accusations of lobbying to push through the controversial 2015 merger of affiliates Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries.
Dozens of South Korean corporate groups made contributions totalling 77.4 billion won ($65.75m) to two foundations that were set up to back President Park's initiatives, but Samsung's donations were the largest.
Late last month, the head of South Korea's National Pension Service, the world's third-largest pension fund, was arrested after he acknowledged that he had pressured the fund to approve the $8 billion merger between the two Samsung Group affiliates while he was head of the health ministry.
This reversed an earlier public denial.
