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Samsung Caught Bribing Government Officials

Dekortage writes "Allegedly, electronics giant Samsung Electronics attempted to bribe a South Korean government official with 5 million won (US$5,445). Ironically, the official was Lee Yong-chul, who was a presidential monitor against corruption at the time. This is the latest allegation against Samsung, which was recently accused of running 'a vast network of bribery through the government, the judiciary branch and the news media' that reaches all the way to South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun."

26 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. I want my share by telchine · · Score: 5, Funny

    Who's going to pay me not to criticise them in my comment?

  2. Has Samsung learned nothing from the U.S.?!?! by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Hey Samsung, you don't bribe OUTRIGHT! The smart way to do it is through major contributions to "non-political" nonprofits (like "Focus on the Family" or moveon.org) and hosting generous fundraisers for candidates where all your employees and anyone else you can muster show up at $2,000 a plate.

    Geez, handing a politician an actual suitcase full of cash went out with Huey Long. The smart companies figured out long ago that there were much better, technically legal, ways to bribe their politicians.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Has Samsung learned nothing from the U.S.?!?! by evilviper · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Even better: give government officials high paying jobs in your company, the day they leave office.

      Maybe even jobs where they directly lobby the government in your company's interests.

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    2. Re:Has Samsung learned nothing from the U.S.?!?! by Asmodai · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Oh that's so true.

      In South Korea and Japan giving gifts to business acquaintances is very common. Here in the Netherlands and some other countries such things are commonly forbidden in employee contracts as they're considered bribes.

      That's the problem of viewing events only from your local cultural perspective.

      --
      Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai
    3. Re:Has Samsung learned nothing from the U.S.?!?! by elrous0 · · Score: 2, Funny
      This guy wasn't a business acquaintance though, he was a government official (charged with rooting out government corruption, no less). And they weren't even smart enough to give him a GIFT (like jewelry or a TV or something). It was an actual honest-to-god pile of cash.

      I'm pretty sure bribing government officials with large bundles of cash is legally frowned on in most industrialized countries.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    4. Re:Has Samsung learned nothing from the U.S.?!?! by elrous0 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Hey, good enough for the Bush family, good enough for a South Korean politician.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    5. Re:Has Samsung learned nothing from the U.S.?!?! by Admiral+Ag · · Score: 2, Informative

      I live in Korea. Bribery is a way of life in business here. It used to be far worse. Lee Myung Bak, the conservative candidate for the upcoming presidential election is being hounded for corrupt business practices from decades ago. I don't like the guy, but this is unfair, since you simply couldn't be in business at the time without engaging in massive bribery. To its credit the government has essentially declared war on graft, but old habits die hard. A few companies have apparently sworn to avoid it as well, since they understand, as the government does, that it doesn't work particularly well when you are doing business deals with foreigners.

      One explanation I have heard is that it is because Korea is a Confucian society. Personal relationships and personal loyalty are extremely important here (I'm told that corporate executives were shamed when they were forced to restructure and make employees redundant, because the expectation of loyalty ran both ways). Of course, when your ethical code emphasizes personal relationships, it seems odd to think of one having a personal relationship with an abstract entity like the law, and hence bribery isn't seen as that bad.

      On the other hand, it must be difficult for foreigners who tried to do business here in the early days. Koreans have a great love for drink and hookers (Google what "Barber Shop" means in Korea - a clue: if you go to one for a haircut, you will receive a surprise). It was customary, among with other gifts, to ply one's prospective business partner with alcohol and women.

      Please don't think that I am bashing the place. I really like it here. The people are lovely and the food is great, and you can watch Starcraft tournaments 24/7 on one of the many TV channels that broadcast them.

      --
      "by that I mean people who don't sit on slashdot all day wondering why everyone else isn't building robots" DECS
  3. South Korea by Junky191 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I've spent enough time there to know that token respect bribes are just a part of how business gets done. I'm sure most of the large corporations are doing the same, it just seems Samsung slipped up and got caught.

    1. Re:South Korea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'd expect it's as big a part of their culture as China.
      Hardware certification testing for example, and most certainly all the recently recalled toys, are all effected by this, companies doing 'testing' in China, even if their management aren't aware of it, are often not actually testing products at all, a bribe is paid to an test engineer, the paperwork is done.

      There are Chinese staff (in China) that are having to be told by international investors, to stop taking bribes (effectively halving their wage) otherwise the company will cease to function as it's getting noticed that the equipment coming out, does not in any way actually perform to the standard expressed in the test certificates given. It's all very well in china, but when the customer is overseas, and has to conform to overseas legislation, companies are (rightly) turning away from 'cheaper' testing alternatives based in asia, as they're finding their products turned away by their target markets, and then having to send them for re-testing.

      The problems is of course they take the bibes as an accepted way of doing things there, and would have taken the job with that in mind, otherwise knowing it was underpaid.

      Obviously what we actually want (need) is properly tested, safe, goods, that function fully as described. And I'd much rather see stickers with 'Made in China, fully safety/RF/you name it tested in UK'

      I'm just actually sorry for the position many of the workers are in there.

  4. What they didn't mention by swb311 · · Score: 5, Funny

    That it was $5,000 worth of old Samsung CRTs.

  5. A vast network of bribery in South Korea... by digitaldc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...also known as Washington lobbyists in the United States.

    --
    He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
  6. Bribery? In Southeast Asia? by b96miata · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is unheard of. We must stop samsung before this sort of behavior spreads and becomes endemic to countries in the region.

  7. Consistency is Not Irony by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ironically, the official was Lee Yong-chul, who was a presidential monitor against corruption at the time.

    That's not "irony". That's evidence that Samsung was also bribing or otherwise corrupting the government that Lee was paid not to monitor.

    Even Alanis Morissette knows that bribing a cop to freely rob a house isn't "ironic".
    --

    --
    make install -not war

  8. Talk about a cheap date by UbuntuDupe · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I didn't know you could buy off such a major official for only $5500. "Oh, sure, I'll risk public shame and losing all my influence in exchange for a week's pay."

  9. 911 by chiefer · · Score: 2, Funny

    no wonder my Samsung cell keep dialing 911 inadvertently...

  10. Re:Bribing the monitor against corruption by elrous0 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's the classic Homegrown dilema. Bribe the cop too much, and he expects it from them on. Bribe him too little and he is insulted and busts you.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  11. Don't worry... by localman · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...the market will work it out

  12. Corruption everywhere by TheBearBear · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I grew up a bit naive, believing my country is different from others in terms of corruption, with all our checks and balances and just our culture. In other countries where corruption runs high, people just accept it as a way of life. But now I am reading all about corruption in my country and it just made me realize that our form corruption is most dangerous. Corruption hides behind all these wack laws and loopholes so alot of times we won't/can't recognize it as corruption, while other poor countries - tho they are off worse - know full well what it is.

    You see, those countries' peoples will have a chance to fight because they know what it is. Depends on how bad they're willing to shed blood. THat's why their "leaders" rule with an iron hand. They're AFRAID OF THE PEOPLE. US, on the other hand - we don't even have the will to fight. We're too comfortable. Corruption THRIVES on this. Corruption doesn't have to rule with an iron hand. They know the sheep are fat and lazy.

    We've all taken the red pill.

    1. Re:Corruption everywhere by Red+Flayer · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Oh, I fully agree with you, but my personal perspective has changed.

      When I was young and idealistic, I wanted to help the sheep rise up.

      When I became older and more ambitious, I wanted to be the shepherd.

      When I got even older and jaded, I realized that if I worked for the farm, I'd only ever get to be the sheepdog.

      Now that I'm a relatively old cynic, I'm content to be a coyote -- too sharp to be herded, but not above using the farmer to get what I need.

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
  13. another slashdot "editing" moment by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is another one of those slashdot moments that could easily be fixed with a bit of that pesky "editing" that the editors around here seem to loathe. Nearly every comment I'm reading talks about how the government official was corrupt, but a simple read of the article shows that he in fact REFUSED the bribe. There is no hypocrisy there--he is in charge of monitoring bribery in the government, Samsung attempted to bribe him, he refused it and is now using their attempt in a government case against Samsung. That is EXACTLY what he's supposed to be doing!

    --
    This guy's the limit!
    1. Re:another slashdot "editing" moment by Red+Flayer · · Score: 3, Informative
      There's another explanation that makes far more sense given the timeframe and the public statements made by the officials in question.

      Nearly every comment I'm reading talks about how the government official was corrupt, but a simple read of the article shows that he in fact REFUSED the bribe
      Reading the article will show that he ACCEPTED the bribe, then only refused it when he saw it was cold hard cash.

      There is no hypocrisy there--he is in charge of monitoring bribery in the government, Samsung attempted to bribe him, he refused it and is now using their attempt in a government case against Samsung.
      No. Another official blew the whistle on the widespread bribery, and Lee has come forward in order to cover his own ass. After almost three years, Lee did nothing -- didn't come forward, didn't report the attempted bribe to his superiors, didn't do anything except accept a job in the industry (outside of government) -- until the shit had already started to hit the fan.

      Would it surprise anyone if the private firm Lee Yong-chul now works for has competitors of Samsung on its client list?

      Furthermore, would it surprise anyone if Lee Yong-chul garnered evidence of the bribe attempt for a reason different than whistle-blowing? Extortion/blackmail, perhaps? When the scandal becaome public (through the statements of Kim Yong-chul), Lee Yong-chul's documentation of the briber attempt became relatively worthless. What better way to try to save his own arse than by going public?

      Note also that Lee's role in investigating government corruption was prompted by the revelation that President Roh (his boss) was involved in a bribery/corrpution/slush fund scandal during the 2002 election campaign. Lee reeks of corruption as badly as the rest, but was smart enough to engineer a way to come out looking somewhat clean.
      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
  14. Sales poor? by lymond01 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I read in Time magazine (yes, the near-leftist weekly reminder of recent pop history) that "Americans purchase 7600 Samsung LCDs per day". I'm guessing that is both TVs and monitors. Still...per day. I think in the most profitable stage of my burgeoning sales career, I only sold 15 cups of lemonade in one day. Perhaps if I'd bribed local officials....

  15. Re:Bribing the monitor against corruption by Cornflake917 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If someone dropped 250k in my lap, I wouldn't say anything, not a damn word. 5k, however, is a little shallow for a bribe. I would say it's worth it for the respect you could get for coming clean about it.

    In conclusion, I think Samsung should give me 250k so I can prove my point.

  16. This is not news by holywarrior21c · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As early as 60s in Korea, Govn't have been helping chaebols http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaebol/ in the effort to push industrialization. This is not news and oftentimes government officials were found laundrying billions of korean won making laws in favor of giants or chaebols in Korea. in korea samsung has its own nicknames like "samsung empire", "republic of samsung". just like microsoft has been often favored by the court and govn't, samsung will remain bully for sometime until there are like 10 another samsung-like-giants in Korea. what do samsung do? electronics, heavy industries, weapons, entertainment....investing in samsung stock is like investing in index fund of some country...it's madness!

  17. Re:Get the facts by WindBourne · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And as somebody who lives in their back yard, what you say is incorrect. Dobson has been cuaght a number of times pushing candidates and ppl just below him pushing all sorts of money. The only difference between MoveOn, Club for Growth vs. Moral Majority, the Catholic church, and FotF, is that the later pretend to be about religion. They are ALL about pushing their agendas.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  18. Re:5M Won by Admiral+Ag · · Score: 2, Informative

    Believe me, it isn't.

    Apparently in an attempt to make it harder to bribe people, the highest denomination banknote here is 10,000 won, which is about ten dollars (a 50,000 won note is in the works). I bought a mac with cash, and it was like trying to buy a loaf of bread in Germany in 1929. I almost needed a wheelbarrow to transport the full amount.

    --
    "by that I mean people who don't sit on slashdot all day wondering why everyone else isn't building robots" DECS