South Korean prosecutors have charged three executives of LG Electronics Inc. with vandalizing high-end washing machines from Samsung Electronics Co. at retail shops in Germany last year.

Jo Seong Jin, head of the home appliance division, was indicted along with Cho Han Ki and Chun Myung Woo, LG said in a statement citing Jo’s lawyer, Ham Yoon Keun. The incident occurred before September’s IFA show in Berlin, when a number of Samsung Crystal Blue washing machines, which sell for more than $2,000, were damaged.

The charges are the latest black eye for South Korea’s chaebols, or family-run conglomerates, which dominate the nation’s corporate landscape and have been subject of a long-running debate about their power and influence. Heather Cho, daughter of Korean Air Lines Co.’s chairman, was jailed last week in the so-called “nut-rage” incident, in which a flight from New York was delayed over the way she was served macadamia nuts by airline staff.

Samsung, which asked prosecutors to investigate, declined to comment on the charges in an e-mailed response to Bloomberg News. LG said all three indicted executives still work at the company and declined to make them available for comment, citing its policy on pending legal matters.

YouTube Video

LG also posted a video on YouTube, which the company said shows the incident at the IFA show.

“I was accompanied by a bunch of LG officials, and many other people were at the German shops where I allegedly vandalized the Samsung washers,” Jo said in an e-mailed statement. “Samsung staff were also watching us. If I intentionally destroyed the washers, Samsung officials would have not remained quiet.”

Samsung and LG are South Korea’s biggest electronics makers, competing with each other in appliances, televisions and mobile devices.

Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office took up the case after Samsung sued for property damage, defamation and obstruction of business. German prosecutors dropped the case before trial in December.

LG Electronics’ headquarters and a factory in Changwon were searched by Korean prosecutors on Dec. 26.

In the most notorious recent incident involving the behavior of executives at chaebols, Korean Air’s Heather Cho was sentenced to one year in prison on Feb. 12 after being convicted of usurping a pilot’s authority when she ordered a crew member to deplane after being served macadamia nuts in the bag.

Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang Ho apologized to the public for his daughter’s behavior, and Heather Cho resigned from all of her positions at Korean Air and other affiliates during the public backlash.