Samsung's Leader Is Out of Jail, Allowing US Factory Plans To Move Forward

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Samsung Group's leader, Jay Y. Lee, is out of jail on parole today. Lee was serving a 30-month sentence for his role in "Choi-gate," a major 2016 South Korean political scandal that brought down South Korean then-President Park Geun-hye. In 2017, Lee was originally sentenced to five years in jail after being found guilty of bribery, embezzlement, capital flight, and perjury. An appeal and retrial cut Lee's five-year prison sentence down to 30 months after suspending the charges for bribery and embezzlement. Lee served 18 months of that sentence, and now he's out on parole.

Upon his release, Lee told reporters, "I've caused much concern for the people. I deeply apologize. I am listening to the concerns, criticisms, worries, and high expectations for me. I will work hard." Lee's release from prison is controversial. The pro-business side of South Korean politics wants to see Lee back on the streets because Samsung is a massive part of South Korea's economy, and jailing the leader has delayed major strategic decisions at the company. Civic groups say South Korea's business elite get a different set of rules from everyone else and that Lee's parole is the latest sign of that reality.

Samsung makes up anywhere from 10-20 percent of South Korea's GDP, depending on how the latest quarter is going. As the top dog at Samsung, Lee has the final say on major investments and acquisitions, and one of the big decisions he needs to make is where to build a $17 billion chip factory in the US. The plant could be operational as soon as October 2022, and with the world currently in the middle of a global chip shortage, there's pressure to get everything started. US businesses have even been lobbying South Korea to pardon Lee in the hopes that the deal would go through. Lee reportedly left prison to head to Samsung headquarters, but he still has more legal issues to deal with. In October, he will face another trial relating to the Samsung C&T merger, this time for accounting fraud and stock price manipulation.

Eh, what?

[DontBeAMoran]

The pro-business side of South Korean politics wants to see Lee back on the streets because Samsung is a massive part of South Korea's economy, and jailing the leader has delayed major strategic decisions at the company.

If regular folks like us can work remotely from home, surely he can work remotely from prison.

What a load.

[Gravis Zero]

Nothing was stopping Samsung from moving forward except the executives. What they did is pressure the government to let their corruption slide or they would sabotage the company and it worked.

Re:

[TWX]

Why was a convicted felon retained as head of the company? Why didn't the shareholders replace him?

Re:

[Deal In One]

Exactly. Its not like the Samsung heir is going to physical build the factories, one brick at a time and noone else in the world can do it.

It's just trying to put pressure on the government to get him out.

Too big to fail?

[p51d007]

Kind of sounds like some of the auto industry propped up. We can't let them fail, they are too big. Yeah, too big for the politicians that depend on the money kickbacks.

Re:

[Whateverthisis]

"KIckbacks" is an American term and looked down on. Many other cultures disagree. In China for example, there is a term called "guan xi", where you help out your friends and neighbors and in return they give you gifts for maintaining the relationship. This is considered ethical business practice.

More importantly, the negative connotation of "To Big To Fail" is a very American thing. Companies are expected to stand on their own, and compete against others; conglomerate monopolies are "bad". That is

Let's

[wakeboarder]

get him out of jail to build the factory, then throw him back in the slammer.

Work with criminals?

[fermion]

I am not sure why the US and the business world in general is so desperate to work with convicted criminals. Bill Hwang, a convicted criminal, was allowed to continue to manage finances even though he was a convicted criminal. He lost 20 billion in two days. The international banks were desperate to throw him money. Does no one remember the nearly half billion dollars that Wisconsin taxpayers threw at Foxconn for a non e instant factory?

Re:

[bill_mcgonigle]

Ask yourself why Mr. Gates just lied to Anderson Cooper about his relationship with Mr. Epstein. Even though the facts are all verifiable.

Criminals should work!

[bussdriver]

UNLESS their crime relates to their job; such as bribery, fraud, or embezzlement should bar a person from management for a significant if not for their life. Samsung is seriously fucked up and South Korea if they can't replace management convicted of such crimes. There are plenty of sociopaths that would kill for a promotion and some good leaders all working their way up to leadership positions.

Epstein's social networking and attempted bribery schemes do not convict everybody he was trying to influence ev

Re:

[John.Banister]

Do they have a choice? He owns a bunch of Samsung stock and has a lot of power there, which he was able to retain, even though he went to prison. If you can't get the other people at Samsung to consider that someone else has final say, and you want to deal with Samsung, then he's the one who has final say over the Samsung end of your dealing. For the other people at Samsung, the prison time was a temporary interval among years of his leadership, and the crimes for which he was imprisoned provided benefit

Re:

[fermion]

Bill Gates stepped away

Re:

[John.Banister]

Yes. But, he wasn't forced to step away. He wanted to. If he had wanted to keep running Microsoft, companies that use MS products could be forced to live with recent decisions of his right now.

Work?

[nospam007]

Won't he travel in a box to Lebanon, like CEOs of Asian companies like to do ?