Lee Jae Young: Why did South Korea forgive the "prince" of Samsung?

 

Samsung lawyer Lee Jae-young, convicted of bribery and money laundering in 2017, received privileges from the president.

Lee, one of South Korea's most powerful white-collar workers, has been arrested twice on charges of bribing the former president.

The South Korean government justified the move by saying that the de facto leader of the country's largest company should be reappointed to lead the economic recovery from the pandemic.

Another wave of struggle for control of the country after the capture of Seoul and the overthrow of the president six years ago.

Lee's crimes were directly linked to the corruption scandal that led to the imprisonment of former President Park Geun-hye during his tenure from 2013 to 2017.

Dubbed the "Crown Prince of Samsung" by protesters, he paid President Park $8m (£6.6m) to rally support for a merger opposed by shareholders that would increase his family's control over his kingdom. ……

Over the three weekends he was released in the winter of 2016/2017, tens of thousands of South Koreans joined candlelight demonstrations demanding an end to Park's rule and an end to the conflict between politics and business.

Park was fired by the Korean Parliament and in 2017 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Lee, known in the West as JY Lee, was arrested a year later for crimes including embezzling company funds to buy $800,000 (£650,000) worth of horses for the President's nephew.

New chairman Moon Jae-in takes office with cleaning duties. But he couldn't get far. In his final days as president, he apologized to his predecessor.

Now, eight months later, under another new president, Samsung owners are equally blessed.

This is a frightening reality for those who fight corruption.

“This is a conflict. It goes back to an era before the lighting of Korean candles,” said Sangin Park, a professor of economics and industrial policy at Seoul National University.

Octopus effect.

Lee's case echoes public sentiment that business leaders are untouchable and above the law.

The Korean economy is dominated by large conglomerates, which account for about 80% of the GDP of the top 10 companies. Known as chaebols, they were a family empire that offered a variety of services. L.G., Hughes, Lotte and S.K.

But Samsung is the biggest and most powerful of them all.

It is a global electronics brand and the world's largest smartphone manufacturer. However, it is mostly done at home - in hospitals, hotels, insurance companies, billboards, shipyards and even amusement parks.

Professor Yunkyeong Lee, a political sociologist at the University of Toronto, said that Samsung and other chaebols were so common that they were called "octopus" companies.

And these tentacles have long reached the heights of Korean politics. Professor Lee participated in the 2016 protests and said much of the anger was directed at President Park's personal actions. But he said.

After the Korean War, the government actively supported chaebols. They were given cheap electricity and tax breaks, pursued "al-Korean" policies, and even helped to suppress the trade union movement.

But as a result, monopolies also paralyze competition and the labor movement, and their practice leads to decades of bribery and corruption.

In most cases, administrators receive lenient sentences or are suspended from work, according to Professor Li. In some cases, judges say the economy will suffer if the chaebol leader is fired.

Lee's own father, Lee Kun-hee, was convicted of bribery and embezzlement while he was chairman of Samsung in the 1990s. However, he never spent a day in prison.

So when his son was sentenced to five years in prison in 2017 and moved to a cell, activists hoped it would be a turning point in the case.

He is in jail and out.

However, the holiday was short-lived. Lee's legal battles have dragged on for years, and his comeback has come close to being Korea's most dramatic soap opera.

The Court of Appeal acquitted him and the Supreme Court subsequently ordered a review of his conviction and prison sentence.

But a few months after his second sentence, Ai's government released him on parole, saying it was in the national interest.

He returned as the public face of Samsung, welcoming US President Joe Biden on a business visit to South Korea in May.