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Crime Businesses The Almighty Buck The Courts

Former South Korean President Sentenced To 15 Years In Prison For Accepting $5.4 Million In Bribes From Samsung (npr.org) 152

South Korea's former president, Lee Myung-bak, was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison for bribery and embezzlement. He will also have to pay $11.5 million in fines. NPR reports: Lee is the second South Korean leader convicted this year of charges of corruption and the fourth former president to be arrested for corruption since the 1990s. Prior to entering politics, Lee had been an executive at Hyundai and campaigned on a promise to help South Korea's economy grow. Lee served as president of South Korea from 2008 until 2013. A court ruled Friday that before and during his presidency Lee accepted $5.4 million in bribes from Samsung, South Korea's largest conglomerate.

In exchange, Lee had granted a presidential pardon to Lee Kun-hee, Samsung's chairman, who had been convicted of embezzlement and tax evasion. The conviction had forced Lee Kun-hee to resign from Samsung in 2008; he returned to work at the company shortly after receiving the presidential pardon. The court also found that former president Lee disguised his ownership of a lucrative auto-parts maker under the names of his relatives and embezzled 24 billion Korean won from the company, according to The New York Times. Samsung later offered to pay legal fees for a court case involving the auto-parts company.
Lee, who did not appear in court on Friday, denied the charges. "During the hearings, he shifted the blame to his aides, accusing them of committing the crimes for their own profit and conspiring against him," Judge Chung Kae-seon said on Friday, according to The Times.
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Former South Korean President Sentenced To 15 Years In Prison For Accepting $5.4 Million In Bribes From Samsung

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  • by Ashthon ( 5513156 ) on Friday October 05, 2018 @09:27PM (#57435656)

    This guy was clearly an amateur. He should have looked to western politicians if he wants to see how to legally receive large bribes from corporations. All he need do is call them campaign donations and everything becomes perfectly acceptable and aboveboard.

    It is good to see corruption in politics being punished for once. In the US you can hold a Senate hearing for Facebook where 46 of the 55 committee members [slashdot.org] have been paid off by Facebook in advance and nobody even bats an eyelid.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      I could be wrong but South Korea is one the modern democracies where the government allocates campaign funds to each candidates to prevent politicians from being bribed and/or corrupted by money

  • and of samsung? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by holophrastic ( 221104 ) on Friday October 05, 2018 @09:34PM (#57435676)

    I can certainly understand that our political leaders shouldn't take bribes. Obviously that's bad.

    But even more obviously, I can understand a human being having a great deal of trouble turning down millions of bribery dollars for favours that don't kill anybody.

    You'll never get, even honest people to stop taking casual bribes. it's millions of dollars vs a rubber stamp. Everyone has their price.

    I'm happy with a small jail term (I think 15 years is 14 years too many) and forfeiting the money with interest.

    But what of Samsung? Shouldn't we be making it detrimental to offer bribes in the first place? I'd be happy with samsung being straight-up denied for any government application/request of any kind for one year per million dollars of bribery, plus a payment of double the bribe amount to local taxes.

    In this case, with 5 million dollars in bribery, that would mean taxing samsung 10 million dollars and denying every government request (building application, tax exemption, valuation assessment) for the next 5 years.

    I call it my sit-down-and-shut-up-for-a-while punishment.

    • But what of Samsung? Exactly this. There should be some Samsung execs sitting in the same hoosegow as the South Korean president.

      • Right, damn them to hell! They should all be forced to carry iPhones.

        • Right, damn them to hell! They should all be forced to carry iPhones.

          Yes. Up their asses.

          • That's the best way to use an iPhone in my opinion. Each one personally tested by Tim Cook.

            • That's the best way to use an iPhone in my opinion. Each one personally tested by Tim Cook.

              Now that's just mean. Funny, but mean.

              I seem to have reached my Slashdot quota of friends, or I would add you.

              • Not all gay men are into anal. I know one who has has publicly stated that it was a one way channel for him.

                • Not all gay men are into anal.

                  But we're not talking about all gay men, we're talking about Tim Cook. And you have to admit, Tim Cook definitely comes across as the kind that likes a little Prince Albert in the can, if you catch my drift.

    • Re:and of samsung? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Mashiki ( 184564 ) <mashiki@gmail.cBALDWINom minus author> on Friday October 05, 2018 @10:13PM (#57435818) Homepage

      But what of Samsung?

      Several top board members including the CEO were already arrested, their trials are forthcoming. The case against park was proving that she took bribes. Now that it's been proven and she's been impeached the cases against the CEO and board members go forward. Those are in relation that they paid her bribes and embezzled money from the company to do so. This really isn't covered in western media in the least. The legal system works in kind of a top-down approach with high profile figures and then goes after everyone. If you need another example read up on Hyandai Motor Co, which was fined $80m(USD), they also went after every single person that approved it.

    • I can certainly understand that our political leaders shouldn't take bribes. Obviously that's bad.

      But even more obviously, I can understand a human being having a great deal of trouble turning down millions of bribery dollars for favours that don't kill anybody.

      You'll never get, even honest people to stop taking casual bribes

      Please, for the love of God, stop defending corruption and try visting less corrupt countries. You will get people stop taking casual bribes. There will be a few sociopaths still doing corruption, but you don't see it being commonplace.

    • How about reversing what he was bribed for? Undo the pardon and put the chairman (if he still is the chairman) back in jail to serve out his sentence. If the bribe was to get a sell something then at the very least all money is refunded.

      As for punishment of Samsung I'd also want to have the people responsible for the bribe (for example, was it the board that wanted the chairman back?) sent to jail. Fining them or the company won't make them think twice about doing it again.

    • I'm happy with a small jail term (I think 15 years is 14 years too many) and forfeiting the money with interest.

      AND with the result of the bribe revoked. That happened in Spain when property developers paid bribes to whoever was in power to get planning permission to build homes, then the government changed and the next people in power revoked those permissions - after homes were built, which meant a lot were torn down.

      In this case, revoke the presidential pardon for the Samsung executive, and let the jail sentence start fresh, with no possibility for parole.

    • by dcw3 ( 649211 )

      Can't believe that I had to scroll through 80% of the posts before finding one that wasn't off-topic. Thank you!

  • From my understanding, every S. Korean leader has either been exiled, killed or placed in prison for corruption since 1950. Either their democracy is working really well, where the courts actually act on corruption, or there's a clear legitimacy problem where despite elections corrupt leaders are almost always elected.

    • by novakyu ( 636495 )

      That's totally false, completely bogus characterization. Why don't you check your sources before you spout off nonsense like this? Some S. Korean leaders commit suicide [wikipedia.org].

      Ignorant prick.

    • by dcw3 ( 649211 )

      It's a cultural issue there. I say this from six years of personal observation. Bribery is commonplace among nearly all government officials. If you want to get something done at a government office, you can expect to have to pay some cash in addition to the actual fees if you want to get what you're after in any kind of reasonable time. FWIW, I'm not biased against the people...I married one of them.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    So what penalties are Samsung facing?

  • Samsung always take care of their customers. They will contraband a Samsung Galaxy Note behind bars. By igniting it, he will be able to break the prison wall and escape to freedom.

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." -- Bertrand Russell

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