Prosecutors Raid LG Offices Over Alleged Vandalism of Samsung Dishwashers

As reported by Reuters, Korean manufacturing giant LG's Seoul headquarters have been raided over allegations that LG employees sabotaged dishwashers made by rival Samsung. The Samsung machines were "on display at two stores in September ahead of the IFA electronics show in Berlin." From the article: On Friday, investigators searched the Seoul offices of LG Elec's home appliance head, Jo Seong-jin, and others and secured documents and computer hard disks related to the IFA fair, Yonhap News Agency said. They also combed through LG Electronics' home appliance factory in the southeastern city of Changwon, the report said. ... Samsung sued LG Electronics employees after the incident in Germany, and LG said the company has counter-sued Samsung employees on Dec. 12. Media reports have earlier said prosecutors banned LG's Seong-jin from leaving the country ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to be held January 6-9.

Comments

This means war!

[ColdWetDog]

And you guys thought the reason for adding Internet connectivity to appliances was to help the NSA.

Come see the Battle of the Appliances! Coming to a home near you!

GE toaster takes out Amana microwave. LG dryer attacks the Hoover vacuum. People run to the streets in terror!

Micheal Bay to direct the movie!

Re:This means war!

[msauve]

Dysons suck.

Re:This means war!

[TWX]

No, they don't.

I'll leave the interpretation this statement of perception of quality of this particular vacuum as an exercise to the reader.

Re:This means war!

[LordLucless]

Except this doesn't sound like it has anything to do with the internet, or computer technology at all. It was physical vandalism, performed on the premises, in the flesh, by LG workers.

I Always Liked the Cardasian Justice System

[wisnoskij]

Say all you want about innocent until proven guilty, but when when the government has the right to detain, raid, and otherwise completely interrupt/ruin your life on a whim or allegation, how is that fair? Sure they cannot send you to prison without a trial, but they can detain you in a prison until a trial. They cannot fine or punish you without a trial, but they can raid and seize evidence on almost 0 grounds.

Compare this to the Cardassian system that will not detain you, will not question you, will not release to the public any allegations, you lose 0 rights and are not even inconvenienced until your guilt is proven. They are given the burden of proving your guilt before they can do any of these things.

Re:I Always Liked the Cardasian Justice System

[Opportunist]

I'm more partial to a polar justice system. It gives you a perfectly clear direction and says exactly just how far you may go. But don't you think that kinda goes off on a tangent now?

Re:I Always Liked the Cardasian Justice System

[Rizgar]

It wasn't cancelled, it ran a good course and the cardassians appeared in many spin-offs.

Re:I Always Liked the Cardasian Justice System

[Anonymous Coward]

If you had ever watched Star Trek you would know the Cardassians had little interest in truth of justice, and were notorious for executing or incarcerating innocent people. For some proof please watch these episodes:

Deep Space 9 - Season 2 Episode 25 - Tribunal
Deep Space 9 - Season 5 Episode 8 - Things Past

Re:I Always Liked the Cardasian Justice System

[thegarbz]

Really? The government shouldn't have a right to detain people who are a potential flight risk? They shouldn't have the right to raid an office in search of evidence which may be potentially destroyed? This all seems to be part of a basic allegation.

On the flip side we can look at issues like the "terrorist" attack in Sydney last week, you know the one committed by a guy who was out on bail awaiting trial for 50 counts of sexual assault and accessory to murder?
Or just look at the countless cases of destroyed evidence which appear in the news every day.

I think the opposite to you. On an allegation any reasonable steps need to be taken to ensure they are investigated. People shouldn't be allowed to leave the country, offices should be raided. Otherwise it is simply too easy to avoid prosecution.

Re:I Always Liked the Cardasian Justice System

[wisnoskij]

So their government can be overbearing and tyrannical, they can fabricate evidence and try innocent people. News flash, American does that all the time. At least on Cardassia you are truly innocent until proven guilty. At least on Cardassia you cannot be impassioned without a trial, you cannot be held up in courts for decades and have your resources witted away by a richer opponent. At least on Cardassia the amount of justice you get is not equal to how much you can buy.

Re:I Always Liked the Cardasian Justice System

[Anonymous Coward]

Say all you want about innocent until proven guilty, but when when the government has the right to detain, raid, and otherwise completely interrupt/ruin your life on a whim or allegation, how is that fair?

It's not. Life's not fair. The whole point of granting government a right to detain, raid (with a warrant), or otherwise interrupt your life is to grant them sufficient power to attempt to carry out justice. Ie, it's a compromise against either anarchy or a police state.

Sure they cannot send you to prison without a trial, but they can detain you in a prison until a trial. They cannot fine or punish you without a trial, but they can raid and seize evidence on almost 0 grounds.

Yea, uh, that last part requires a warrant and it's not "almost 0 grounds". Courts (well, all except FISA) don't just rubber stamp things.

Compare this to the Cardassian system that will not detain you, will not question you, will not release to the public any allegations, you lose 0 rights and are not even inconvenienced until your guilt is proven. They are given the burden of proving your guilt before they can do any of these things.

And how do they prove your guilt? Oh, by constantly monitoring you 24/7. You live your entire life in a prison and it's up to the Obsidian Order to decide if you're being loyal enough or patriotic enough or whether their whim fancies to call you guilty of any number of crimes you're almost certainly guilty of. And best of all, the verdict is known from the start and the trial is but a show to test the people's loyalties, to make sure they're cheerleading loud enough. It's all straight out of 1984.

Honestly, if you think the Cardassian system is based on any sort of justice, you have to look no further than the way in which all other police states have functioned. Those in power execute their adversaries and those low enough in the political space (the vast peons) try not to stand out or otherwise offend anyone with any sort of government connect, lest they be charged with 99 counts of jaywalking and left to die in prison.

You see, there's more to a justice system than dishing out punishment on legitimate crimes committed. A large part of the very first complaint you make is a strength, as it prevents pervasive punishment of all crimes but instead focusing on suspicious, large, or habitual offenders who themselves are much more of a burden on society than the inconvenience of short-term detainment by law enforcement. You can argue that our current system in the US grants too much power to LEOs to search (which I agree with) or that warrants at the highest levels are being very abused (again, I'd agree). But a step towards radical authoritarianism is to merely grant the relatively light abuses by LEOs into fully sanctioned abuses without any useful line to protect us because the jury, the trial, and the sentence all get thrown out when the government decides you're guilty and there's nothing to stop them.

But, yea, keep believing that a monoculture of power is a solution to a degradation in the multiculture of power we have now.

Maytag diddit!

[the_skywise]

Obviously Maytag did it and framed LG!

Re:I doubt it.

[TWX]

That's because, up until a few years ago, nearly all US-distributed appliances came out of a manufacturing plant in Evansville, Indiana, owned by the Whirlpool Corporation. Didn't matter if it was badged as Amana, Kenmore, Whirlpool, or any of a whole host of brands, they were all effectively the same machines.

Whirlpool screwed up. That screwup allowed other manufacturers to get a more of a foothold here, ones that could leverage previous badge-engineering and then transition to other sources for the products. It's similar to how GM and Isuzu screwed up and licensed the Isuzu Rodeo (MU) to Honda as the Passport, so Honda could get a jump on the SUV/CUV craze and establish themselves earlier than they would have been able to without having it in the first place.

Only one explanation for this story

[gnasher719]

Let's look at the facts: It is alleged that LG employees destroyed Samsung property in Germany. For starters, the only place where this should possibly go to court is Germany. None of the business of the Korean police at all. The crime happened in Germany. It's like one Korean CEO punching another Korean CEO in the face _in Germany_: We all enjoy it, and the first CEO would be questioned by police and go to court and possibly to jail _in Germany_.

Second, offices of LG in Korea have been raided. What evidence did they expect to find? For a raid (which I assume is just a search with a warrant, and lots of police arriving because it is a big office), the police would have a reasonable expectation to find proof of a crime. Well, in Korea, there is of course another explanation: If Samsung calls the right minister whom they own, any search warrant will come forward immediately.

But then a raid on an LG factory? What evidence in connection with a purported case of vandalism are the police expecting to find in an LG factory? Only possible explanation, same as above.

CEO not allowed to leave the country? That's getting bizarre. Do they think he won't come back? Never heard of bail?

I think it's getting time for LG to buy some politicians themselves. Worst case if someone gets convicted, they can then expect a pardon, like Samsung's ex-CEO (convicted for tax evasion).

Re:Only one explanation for this story

[towermac]

That's a pretty big overreaction for breaking the door hinges on the showroom models. The LG people might have only been 'testing' the Samsung model to LG standards. As in, putting a lot of weight on the door to simulate really heavy dishes.

There's an implication here: LG's door hinges are far stronger than Samsung's. If that is true, then the LG people have a viable defense, in that they didn't do anything that their own dishwasher couldn't handle. They are setup for demonstration purposes, and allowed to be touched and handled.

Also, leave it to the Koreans to make a dishwasher show exciting, and now I sort of want to go to one. Maybe next year some kung-fu will break out. That'd be awesome..

Re:Only one explanation for this story

[TobiX]

There is a reasonable explanation, which you are failing to see. If LG employees were instructed to destroyed Samsung property by their employer, and if at some level LG personnel was dumb enough to write it down in an email or in a memo, police can find the evidence by raiding their Seoul offices, which is exactly what they did.

Re:Vandalism unnecessary.

[Mashiki]

Hell that holds true with fridges among other things. I've got a 1940's style fridge that was my great-grandparents and it's still working. My parents are still using the fridge they got when they were married in 1977. On the other hand the new fridge that I bought 5 years ago has already died, the 3 year old fridge that I bought for my place in florida is already dead. And the same happened to my sister out in western canada, bought a new fridge 3 years ago...already dead. In all those cases, either the compressor died or the coolant leaked out somewhere.

Re:Vandalism unnecessary.

[Dereck1701]

There have been great advances in technology, for the manufacturers. Its called "planned obsolescence", now they can cheaply and reliably build an appliance that will last 3-5 years. At point at which it is no longer their problem. And then shortly thereafter it will fail, meaning that you have to purchase a new one. Its a win win for them.

Re: Vandalism unnecessary.

[charles05663]

It is the Wal-Mart effect. Wal-Mart perfected the notion that they can sell insanely cheap crap that will break after a few years and will need replacing instead of repairing. As we can see, people bought into it.