Samsung heir Lee Jae-Yong has become a criminal suspect in a widening probe into the corruption and influence-peddling scandal engulfing the impeached South Korean President Park Geun-Hye, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Lee, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics and the son of the Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-Hee, would be quizzed as a "suspect" in connection to bribery, prosecutors said.

"We have decided to question Lee tomorrow morning... as a suspect," Lee Kyu-Chul, spokesman for the team of special prosecutors investigating the scandal, told reporters.