Monday, January 18, 2021
Bribery and embezzlement
Samsung's vice president has to be arrested again
The heir to the South Korean electronics company Samsung, Lee Jae-yong, is sentenced to two and a half years in prison. The 52-year-old is immediately arrested for bribery and embezzlement. Officially, Lee is the vice president of Samsung Electronics.
In a retried corruption lawsuit, heir to the Samsung corporate empire, Lee Jae Yong, has been sentenced to prison again. South Korean broadcaster and the national news agency Yonhap reported that the Seoul High Court had sentenced Lee to two and a half years in prison.
The background to the proceedings is a corruption affair involving former South Korean President Park Geun Hye. Samsung is said to have paid large sums of money to a controversial confidante of Park. Lee was sentenced to five years in prison for corruption in 2017. A year later the prison sentence was reduced to a suspended sentence. The proceedings were later resumed. Lee had "actively provided bribes and tacitly asked the president to use her power to support his smooth succession" at the top of the group, the court said in its verdict.
Lee is officially the Vice President of Samsung Electronics, but is considered the top decision maker of the world's leading manufacturer of smartphones and memory chips. The 52-year-old has been at the helm of Samsung for several years after his father Lee Kun Hee was unable to go about business due to a heart attack. Lee Kun Hee passed away in October. Samsung is still in family hands today. The Group's total sales correspond to a fifth of the South Korean gross domestic product and are decisive for the economic success of the Asian country.
From the point of view of economists, the verdict against Lee could plunge Samsung into a serious leadership crisis. "This is really a big blow and a big crisis for Samsung," said Kim Dae Jong, economics professor at Sejong University. Samsung shares collapsed after the verdict was announced. After the stock market closed in Seoul, it was 3.4 percent in the red. Samsung has benefited from the corona pandemic so far, with the company's share price more than doubling compared to March last year.
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