Samsung Chief Charged With Bribery and Embezzlement (npr.org)

After a three-month investigation, the acting head of Samsung, Lee Jae-yong, has been charged with bribery and embezzlement in connection with the corruption scandal that led to the impeachment of South Korea's president Park Geun-hye. NPR reports: NPR's Elise Hu reported from Seoul that prosecutors announced the indictment after a three-month investigation: "Samsung acting head Lee Jae-Yong got ensnared after documents showed Samsung funneled some $36 million to the president's close confidant. Prosecutors say the money was paid to win government support of a controversial 2015 company merger. The merger did go through, after a vote of support from the government. In a statement, Samsung says it has not paid bribes or made improper requests to the government. Lee is currently in jail awaiting further proceedings in his case." Lee was arrested on Feb. 17, two months after President Park Geun-hye was impeached over allegations of corruption, influence-peddling and cult ties, as we reported. Those corruption allegations were directly tied to the charges brought against Lee, who also goes by the name Jay Y. Lee.

Comments

South Korea amazes me

[tietokone-olmi]

Here we have a well-industrialized country with megacorporations aplenty and relatively free mixing between political and economic power, where yet the judicial and executive branches are at all able (even if unwillingly, forced by the crowds) to take on corruption at the level of the president, and some of the largest megacorporations in the area -- if not the world.

Hats off. I expected this investigation to whitewash anyone with any power.

Re:South Korea amazes me

[Mashiki]

A lot of this has to do directly with need and desire to show the world that it's going directly after corrupt practices. There have been a lot of problems over the last 15 years, some of them not so bad, some of them very bad. Whether it's at a government level or at a business level. S.Korea passed new anti-graft and anti-corruption laws ~2 years ago directly targeting that because it had started moving in the direction of Chinese corruption. If you want to read on some of the stuff you can look here. There's also summaries on the differences on how corruption is considered there, compared to North America or Europe. Including the lower burden of proofs required, allowing for auditors and investigators to launch investigations into businesses or government at what would be considered circumstantial here in NA or EU. And allowing the use of CFE's(forensic accountants) for those investigations.

Bribery and Embezzlement!

[SeaFox]

Why didn't they charge him with battery?