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."

Comments

I want my share

[telchine]

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

Has Samsung learned nothing from the U.S.?!?!

[elrous0]

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.

Re:Has Samsung learned nothing from the U.S.?!?!

[evilviper]

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.

Re:Has Samsung learned nothing from the U.S.?!?!

[Asmodai]

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.

South Korea

[Junky191]

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.

What they didn't mention

[swb311]

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

A vast network of bribery in South Korea...

[digitaldc]

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

Bribery? In Southeast Asia?

[b96miata]

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

Consistency is Not Irony

[Doc Ruby]

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".

Corruption everywhere

[TheBearBear]

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.

another slashdot "editing" moment

[gEvil (beta)]

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!

Re:another slashdot "editing" moment

[Red Flayer]

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.

Re:Bribing the monitor against corruption

[Cornflake917]

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.

This is not news

[holywarrior21c]

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!