The IT Nerd

It seems that exploding phones are not the only problem that Samsung has at the moment. It now seems certain Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong faces the prospect of being busted as part of a high-profile investigation into possible bribery and corruption. CNN has the details:

Prosecutors accuse Lee and Samsung of providing 43 billion won ($36.3 million) to organizations linked to a confidante of President Park Geun-hye in return for government backing for the merger.

During a public grilling last month, Lee said he was unaware of Samsung’s payments to the organizations when they were made.

The arrest warrant for Lee came on the same day that National Pension Service chief Moon Hyung-pyo was indicted on charges of perjury and abuse of power. Moon is accused of pressuring the pension fund, a major shareholder in one of the Samsung affiliates, to support the merger when he was minister of health and welfare.

Samsung on Monday disputes the allegations against Lee, saying in a statement Monday that it “did not make contributions in order to receive favors.”

The corruption scandal being referred to in this story is a big deal in South Korea. There have been protests in the streets and President Park Geun-hye has been impeached because of it. Thus this has the potential of making those exploding Note 7’s look minor in comparison.

This entry was posted on January 16, 2017 at 8:56 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Samsung. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.