manufacturer of smartphones, televisions, and memory chips. At the time of his death, the company was worth US$300 billion, and with an estimated net worth US$20.7 billion per Bloomberg's billionaire index, he was the richest person in South Korea; a position that he had held since 2007. Following his death, Lee's heirs are expected to face an estate tax of around US$10 billion, which might potentially result in dilution of the family's stake in the conglomerate. This stems from South Korea's high estate tax of 50% for estates larger than US$3 billion, which is second only to Japan, amongst the OECD countries. Personal life Lee Kun-hee was married to Hong Ra-hee until his death. Hong is the daughter of Hong Jin-ki, the former chairman of the JoongAng Ilbo and Tongyang Broadcasting Company. His siblings and some of their children are also executives of major Korean business groups. Lee Boo-jin, his eldest daughter, is president and CEO of Hotel Shilla, a luxury hotel chain, as well as president of Everland Resort, a theme park and resort operator that is "widely seen as the de facto holding company for the conglomerate" according to the Associated Press. Lee had four children: the eldest child and the only son, Lee Jae-yong (born 1968), and three daughters, Lee Boo-jin (born 1970), Lee Seo-hyun (born 1973), and Lee Yoon-hyung (1979–2005) who died by suicide. Lee's older brother Lee Maeng-hee and older sister Lee Sook-hee initiated legal action against him in February 2012, asking a South Korean court to award them shares of Samsung companies totaling US$850 million (913.563 billion won), which they claim their father willed to them. Court hearings began in May 2012. On 6 February 2014, courts in South Korea dismissed the case. Illness and death Lee was treated for lung cancer in the late 1990s and was tested again for cancer in 2005, at the MD Anderson Medical Center in Houston, Texas, with no subsequent concerns being announced. He was hospitalized in Seoul in May 2014 after suffering a heart attack, and lapsed into a coma, which he remained in until his death on 25 October 2020, at the age of 78. Posthumous The heirs to the late Lee announced in the Spring of 2021 that the businessman’s multibillion-dollar collection of more than 23,000 works of art would be dispersed throughout public institutions in South Korea. Contrary to this announcement, the country’s minister