Samsung Billionaire Gets Off Easy

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.

Must be nice

[rsilvergun]

to be above the law. It's good to be the king.

Re: Must be nice to write retarded headlines

[Reverend Green]

Good morning, Boris! How's the weather in Kiev today?

There is *NO JUSTICE* in Korea

[Anonymous Coward]

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 chae

Re:

[Lab Rat Jason]

I think you might be overlooking the fact that the government the the ones asking for these bribes... and when they sense someone is getting out of line (like providing 1/5 the country's exports) and thinking they're all high and mighty, it's necessary for the government to remind these execs who is in charge. They slap their hand, then let them return to business as usual.

Re:

[Tablizer]

Too Big to Sue

Like father, like son

[Anonymous Coward]

Lee's father, Lee Kun-hee, has been pardoned twice for similar charges.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

First of all it's only modded +1.
Secondly, the mod is for the title, not the comment.
Thirdly, calm the fuck down.
Fourthly, profits!

Re:

[Opportunist]

Well, it's nice to see someone get into the family business.

Same as the US

[DogDude]

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.

Re:Why do you lie? Rich people go to jail, too.

[alvinrod]

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.

Re:

[bogaboga]

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 [investmentwatchblog.com] 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.

Re:

[sysrammer]

Link leads to a page which doesn't state what you said, but does lead to a link to RT. Horror show, moy droogie.

Re:

[stephenmac7]

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 [heritage.org] (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.

Re:

[sgt_doom]

Exactly! Nice articulated and thought out! And why they went after Madoff, of course!

Re:

[burtosis]

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.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re: Why do you lie? Rich people go to jail, too.

[Reverend Green]

All of them. In Soviet America everyone is guilty. Feed the Gulag!

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

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 ban

Re: Same as the US

[Reverend Green]

You tell 'em, Osama!

Re:

[Pinky's Brain]

Gery Shalon is a much better example. Of course nearly no one is aware of the lawsuits against one of the biggest hackers ever and the fact that an Israeli newspaper reported he already has a plea deal to walk, because US mainstream media doesn't talk about it.

It really is good to be king.

Re:

[Solandri]

For all its problems, the U.S. system is still better than Korea's. This type of corruption is part of the reason Korea's GDP per capita [wikipedia.org] is still below $30k (below $40k in PPP [wikipedia.org]), while the U.S. is approaching $60k (that is, the average American is about twice as productive as the average Korean). Corruption diverts money away from where the market wants to send it, decreasing productivity and thus lowering GDP per capita. Mind you, Korea has come a long way in the last 25 years. A spate of building [wikipedia.org] and b [wikipedia.org]

Hey!

[guygo]

I thought the US had the best Justice System money can buy! Come on, guys!

Re:

[slew]

In Korea, the perps didn't have to "buy" justice, it was included in the package...

That's the difference between "new" money and "old" money. If you have "old" money you don't even have to spend it. Buying justice is only for "new" money folks...

Get to the top

[MrKaos]

Rip everyone off.

Re:

[war4peace]

Name a country where this doesn't happen.

Re:

[hey!]

Norway [thestar.com].

Re:

[war4peace]

Um... your post reinforces my post, by the way. Thanks, I guess?

Re:

[MrKaos]

Name a country where this doesn't happen.

What do countries have to do with corruption and human nature? Criminal acts are criminal acts and prosecuting corruption would help.

Re:

[war4peace]

Because people tend to become nationalistic and say "look what happens in $COUNTRY" and continue by thinking "my country is better".

Re:

[MrKaos]

Because people tend to become nationalistic and say "look what happens in $COUNTRY" and continue by thinking "my country is better".

So are you saying your country is worse?

Re:

[war4peace]

Well... it is. Way worse.

Re:

[MrKaos]

Do you think its corruption that makes it worse?

Re:

[war4peace]

Yes, my country has an endemic corruption mindset, stemming from 45 years of communism (until 1989) and a continuation of the same mentality ever since.

Re:

[Black Parrot]

s/law/money/

Re:rule of law in ROK, how does that work?

[MoaDweeb]

According to the World Justice Project South Korea has about a equal a 'rule of law' as the USA.
US 18th, South Korea 19th.
UK 10th, France 21st for some context.

Filthy Scandi countries in their normal single digit positions :-)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

Re:

[guruevi]

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.

Sounds Familiar

[mentil]

Known as a "chaebol," or a (usually family-owned) business conglomerate

Sounds like the Japanese zaibatsu [wikipedia.org]. The 'solution' was to replace them with keiretsu [wikipedia.org], 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.

Re:

[painandgreed]

The zaibatsu system was very popular back in the day, apparently.

From my understanding, back in the Meiji period after the US forced Japan into opening borders and unequal trade agreements with gunboat diplomacy, Japan said 'screw this' and began on a rapid modernization campaign. They set out diplomats to plead their case and learn about the rest of the world including their governments and militaries, they sent out students to Europe and the US to learn everything they could to return to Japan and teach it there, and they went to successful business families and tasked

Re:

[ShamblerBishop]

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.

Re:

[Opportunist]

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.

South Korea is full of corruption

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:

[MoaDweeb]

China is 75th of 113 for Rule of Law, more than 50 places lower than SK.

Re: South Korea is full of corruption

[Reverend Green]

Rule of lawyers is worth nothing, unless you're a lawyer.

Punish with your purchase choices

[DallasTruaxxx]

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 ar

View some of those excellent Korean TV series and

[sgt_doom]

movies to get a good grasp of their present highly-charged capitalist culture:
Veteran
Protect The Boss
Prosecutor Princess
Super Rookie
The Unjust

Bribe the right people

[tbq]

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.