The IT Nerd

I mentioned that this was likely to happen a month ago and now it has. Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong has been arrested an part of a influence-peddling scandal that reaches to the highest levels of the South Korean government. Reuters has the details:

The special prosecutor’s office accuses Lee of bribing a close friend of President Park Geun-hye to gain government favors related to leadership succession at the conglomerate. It said on Friday it will indict him on charges including bribery, embezzlement, hiding assets overseas and perjury.

The 48-year-old Lee, scion of the country’s richest family, was taken into custody at the Seoul Detention Centre early on Friday after waiting there overnight for the decision. He was being held in a single cell with a TV and desk, a jail official said.

Lee is a suspect in an influence-peddling scandal that led parliament to impeach Park in December, a decision that if upheld by the Constitutional Court would make her the country’s first democratically elected leader forced from office.

Samsung and Lee have denied wrongdoing in the case.

The cops have 10 days to actually indict him or seek an extension. Thus this is a story that is likely to evolve over the next few days. But the optics for Samsung have to suck becuase now exploding phones are not their only problem.

This entry was posted on February 17, 2017 at 9:35 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.