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Samsung Billionaire Gets Off Easy (gizmodo.com)
Lee Jae-yong, the Samsung chief found guilty of bribery and embezzlement, was freed from prison after an appeals court reduced and suspended his five-year prison sentence. Gizmodo reports: Lee had pleaded not guilty to all charges and spent nearly a year in jail, CNN reported, before the appeals court reduced his sentence to two and a half years and suspended it for four. The court reportedly found him guilty of one bribery charge, but not of hiding money offshore. It also overturned another bribery charge. It's important to understand that Samsung has a tight grip on the country's economy. Known as a "chaebol," or a (usually family-owned) business conglomerate, Samsung contributes to a little over one-fifth of the country's exports. Its businesses make up about 15 percent of the country's total economy. It is extremely rare for leaders of the country's chaebols to be justly punished for their crimes --
most convicted are ultimately pardoned or granted a commutation. Lee's father, Lee Kun-hee, has been pardoned twice for similar charges.
to be above the law. It's good to be the king.
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Lee's father, Lee Kun-hee, has been pardoned twice for similar charges.
Being an American, I just shrug. We have the same "justice system" here. Poor people go to jail. Rich people don't. It's not right, but it's not news, either.
I don't respond to AC's.
I thought the US had the best Justice System money can buy! Come on, guys!
Rip everyone off.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
...about as well as it works in the USA.
Known as a "chaebol," or a (usually family-owned) business conglomerate
Sounds like the Japanese zaibatsu. The 'solution' was to replace them with keiretsu, which are essentially the same but with shareholders and a board of directors at top rather than dynastic ownership. The zaibatsu system was very popular back in the day, apparently.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
You're missing something important though. Ask yourself what all of those four rich people have in common and the answer is that their crimes were largely against other rich people. The aristocracy will always overlook the behavior of their peers towards the peasantry, but not the transgressions against their own. But even then the punishments are mild. No one was getting sent to federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison.
What kind of country has a man that poses no danger to security in prison before res judicata?
Oh right, this kind of thing is the norm in the US.
You're missing something important though. Ask yourself what all of those four rich people have in common and the answer is that their crimes were largely against other rich people.
No! The dude is right. After all, it was reported not so long ago that the USA and Switzerland top the list when it comes to who is most corrupt.
But the USA then preaches to other nation states about - you guessed it - corruption and good governance.
Maybe he should have rephrased it to if a poor person and rich person do the same crime, the poor person is 500x more likely to do the time because that is closer to reality than rich people get the same justice as poor. In reality the poor can't commit the large finnancial and environmental disasters that the rich are so rarely if ever held to account.
Four examples doesn't mean the whole thing is nonsense. Its proven time and time again those with powerful lawyers who can drag a case out forever often get off for way less than someone without such means.
Then there's that "affluenza" fuckstick.
He who has the gold makes the rules. You can't get the rules enforced against him, either. Sad little humans.
How many Wall Streeters and bankers other than Madoff were jailed for their part in the collapse of the world economy in 2008?
I can't think of any. A few CEOs were forced out of their jobs, with severance packages which were probably 500x the average salary of their banks' rank and file employees.
Those are really bad examples, and there are always a few exceptions to the rule. but all of your examples stole from a lot of other very rich people, that sets them apart from the standard crimes in this space.
Somehow SK is viewed in the west as being less corrupt and full of bribes than China, but it's not true. I've lived here for nearly a decade, corruption is the name of the game in SK. This is no surprise, there was never going to be real penalties.
They're the spiritual equivalent of a coked out jack russell happily running head first into a brick wall.
Sounds like every conversation I've ever had about a persons devout religious beliefs.
How many of them actually broke the law, other than Madoff?
Meanwhile Trump committed many, many instances of fraud against lower class people who fell for the Trump University scam. He wound up paying out over $25 million to settle lawsuits, but he did not go to jail.
Wells Fargo committed millions of acts of fraud against lower class people and nobody went to jail.
The subprime mortgage industry participated millions facts of fraud and nobody went to jail. In fact, the lower class tax payers were forced to bail them out to make sure they didn't even have to go bankrupt.
Funny how that works. Screw over poor people and maybe you pay a fine which is less than what you gained or maybe you get handed a bunch of money to keep you from going bankrupt. Screw over someone wealthy, however, and you go to jail.
I'd still prefer to put a slug through their skull instead of relying on some judgement that may or may not come.
Thinking about it, divine justice for those bastards ain't much different from mundane judgement.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Yup, see the Equifax story half a page down on the front page. Proves your point.
Exactly. We need more real-world justice for the rich. After all, they insist on brutal punishments for all of us peasants, crimes or no crimes.
If you don't like the fact that this guy was given clemency, then punish the corp. with your purchases. Buy someone else's stuff in stead. Stop relying upon some other government to punish corporate wrongdoing. If their profits drop, they will find out why, and then change their ways, or go under. "But that's not going to work, because people don't care enough about the lawfulness of corporations to actually change their buying decisions!" you say? Well, then it must not matter. So let it go. People are either smart enough to vote for the leaders who have their finger on the nuclear button, or they are not. They are either smart enough to vote with their dollars, or they are not. Make up your mind.
Link leads to a page which doesn't state what you said, but does lead to a link to RT. Horror show, moy droogie.
His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
Exactly! Nice articulated and thought out! And why they went after Madoff, of course!
movies to get a good grasp of their present highly-charged capitalist culture:
Veteran
Protect The Boss
Prosecutor Princess
Super Rookie
The Unjust
Good morning, Boris! How's the weather in Kiev today?
All of them. In Soviet America everyone is guilty. Feed the Gulag!
You're linking to a page that talks about something completely different: unwillingness to divulge financial information of clients. That's pretty much completely unrelated to corruption. A more relevant list (sorry I don't know how to link to it with sorting by government integrity) will show us that Venezuela, Nigeria, Cambodia, Madagascar, and Somalia top the list of most corrupt.
"No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session." -- Judge Gideon J. Tucker
The DOJ is ran by Democrats, that's why Clinton got off scott-free while there is a huge Trump investigation going nowhere to try diverting attention from the facts.
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Just another example of white privilege at play. Oh, wait....
As usual with Trumpanzees, ignore the criticism that you are fully aware of their inability to defend against, and deflect, deflect, deflect. Hint: this is why the left has termed you"repugs" - the name fits your behavior.
Since Dear Leader likes to double down when he's demonstrably wrong, I'll give you a chance to do the same now: when are you going to call for an investigation into the members of the Trump kabal which were using private e-mail servers? Please be specific.
Not only in North Korea, in South Korea too, the word 'Justice' has become a very very sick joke
Money talks
No matter who is in charge
No matter who lives inside the Blue House (South Korea's Presidential Palace)
Money talks
The true rulers of South Korea are not the politicians
The true rulers of South Korea are the chaebols
Samsung Group, Hyundai Group, Lotte Group, LG Group, SK Group, and so on ... see the list @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_of_South_Korea ...
No one dare to oppose the chaebols
See for example, this incident --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nut_rage_incident
The end result of the above case?
"On May 22, 2015, in Seoul High Court, the daughter of the boss of the Korean Air was found not guilty of changing airline course"
Sounds familiar?
> Samsung contributes to a little over one-fifth of the country's exports.
Should I be impressed? The United States has a much larger economy than Korea, and I, personally, contribute to more than HALF of the U.S.'s exports!
Of course, my contribution is a very, very small one. But, still, I do contribute.
Or wait -- did the author mean to say that Samsung contributes over one fifth of the country's exports? That would be a lot, if that's true.
Language! It's so tricky, with things meaning things and whatnot!
If you're going to go down for bribery make sure you remember to bribe the judges on the appeals court so that you can get your sentence reduced in a timely fashion.
it has the trappings of a "modern democracy", but it's basically an feudal society with the "rulers" of the largest Chaebols being the King/Emperor. Read about what happened to the last government official who actually took action against Samsung.
This guy has nothing on the Clintons' ability to get out of jail free.
The truth down voted again by the Soros shills.
Think about that the next time you guy a Samsung.
Iâ(TM)m going go with a Pixel next time. Assuming itâ(TM)s still gonna be made by HTC and not some corrupt Korean family conglomerate.
And there there is nothing common folks can do.
Vote in another party? Sorry the chaebol bought them all.
Letâ(TM)s just assume the Koreans voted in a righteous government.... so what? The courts and judges are all bought as well so like in this case where the government have to jail them.... the courts simply let them go and the government say they have to respect rule of law.
It is fucked up. The Koreans live in a lie that their society is democratic or meritocratic.
With their systematic family based nepotism. This is your futute Amerikuks.. the rich dont even go to jail for massive crimes anymore! lol!