Samsung boss & heir Lee Jae-yong jailed for corruption

[Master Disaster]

The de facto boss of Samsung has been convicted of accepting bribes and will serve time in prison

Quote

A court in South Korea has sentenced Samsung's billionaire heir-apparent Lee Jae-yong to five years in prison for corruption.

 

Mr Lee was accused of bribery in a scandal that also saw the impeachment of South Korea's former president.

 

The case has gripped the public amid growing anger against South Korea's biggest companies, known as chaebols.

Mr Lee has been in custody since February and has always denied the charges of bribery, embezzlement and hiding assets

Quote

Mr Lee, who denied all charges, had faced a jail sentence of up to 12 years.

 

Also known as Jay Y Lee, the de facto head of the world's largest smartphone maker had been detained since February on a string of corruption charges.

 

These included including bribery, embezzlement and hiding assets overseas.

 

The 49-year-old was accused of giving donations worth 41bn won ($36m; £29m) to non-profit foundations operated by Choi Soon-sil, a friend of South Korea's former President Park Geun-hye, in return for political favours.

 

Prosecutors alleged that the donations were made to Ms Park's confidante to win government support for a big restructuring of Samsung that would strengthen Mr Lee's control over Samsung Electronics.

His lawyers are already working on his appeal

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41033568

 

I wonder how this will affect the company in the long term? I guess this proves just how corrupt the elites of society really can be.

[TaxxiDriver]

Samsung is corrupt beyond belief, anyone here in Korea knows that for sure. It's been freaking years that people insisted he should be jailed, though I won't be surprised if he bails out about a year later... as it always had been the case.

[Jurrunio]

27 minutes ago, TaxxiDriver said:

Samsung is corrupt beyond belief, anyone here in Korea knows that for sure. It's been freaking years that people insisted he should be jailed, though I won't be surprised if he bails out about a year later... as it always had been the case.

That's the bad thing on having one huge company supporting the country's economy. The government can't really take the company down because Samsung is just too important to South Korea. If Samsung does go down the situation in South Korea won't be any better than the US after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.

[TaxxiDriver]

12 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

That's the bad thing on having one huge company supporting the country's economy. The government can't really take the company down because Samsung is just too important to South Korea. If Samsung does go down the situation in South Korea won't be any better than the US after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.

Well said, bro. I doubt if this country can manage to solve this problem...

[TOMPPIX]

he will be out of prison in a year.

and he knows it.

[vanished]

I know it's hard since they make lots of good things like SSDs, displays, phones, VRAM, etc. but you can avoid buying their things if you try.

This isn't the only problem with this company.  They also treat their employees terribly 

[Misanthrope]

10 hours ago, TaxxiDriver said:

Samsung is corrupt beyond belief, anyone here in Korea knows that for sure. It's been freaking years that people insisted he should be jailed, though I won't be surprised if he bails out about a year later... as it always had been the case.

Perhaps but if he does any time at all is already a far cry from similarly rich corporation heads in America for example.

[Zodiark1593]

1 hour ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I know it's hard since they make lots of good things like SSDs, displays, phones, VRAM, etc. but you can avoid buying their things if you try.

This isn't the only problem with this company.  They also treat their employees terribly 

They also make SoCs for companies like Apple and Qualcomm.

[TacoSenpai]

Thats a shame since I actually quite like Samsung products...

[Commodus]

It's funny how some people will rail against the evils of Apple... and promptly run into the arms of Samsung, a company that makes Apple look squeaky clean by comparison.  I suspect that if some people really knew how Samsung has behaved, they'd smash their Galaxy phones against the wall and buy something else.  Not necessarily iPhones, but HTC or Sony would seem like a bastion of integrity.

[Trik'Stari]

And in a year or two "Samsung moving factories to China" and South Korea has a job shortage problem.

[AresKrieger]

10 minutes ago, thunar said:

im curious....does apple still hire children to assemble phones?

Almost certainly given their profit margin per phone

[MrRavens]

Sadly this isn't too surprising. How long till he gets out of jail with corruption as well.

[OmJo93]

So this must be why the Note 8 is so expensive. That bail money has to come from somewhere, right?

[Sauron]

Let's slow down a little bit, this is a first degree sentence, appeals exist for a reason.

2 hours ago, thunar said:

im curious....does apple still hire children to assemble phones?

Not directly but there's no telling what foxconn does to produce the phones.

[Okjoek]

Damn, I really like my S7 too. =(

[Zodiark1593]

5 hours ago, AresKrieger said:

Almost certainly given their profit margin per phone

Apple themselves obviously won't do so. Foxconn may do so depending on laws and contractual agreements. 

[suicidalfranco]

meh, probably already has a 5 star room setup in the prison he'll be sent. At least he'll receive some well needed vacations 

[AresKrieger]

3 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Apple themselves obviously won't do so. Foxconn may do so depending on laws and contractual agreements. 

Directly or indirectly you don't get profit margins like that with ethical manufacturing processes, not that it really matters all of these companies are scum once they reach these levels of power human nature is dark after all hence why I never trust those with power.

[Commodus]

11 hours ago, thunar said:

im curious....does apple still hire children to assemble phones?

Apple doesn't.  Foxconn has been accused of it, but as I recall Apple actually pressured Foxconn into stricter oversight of working conditions (including who works there).  Apple publishes periodic labor reports if you're wondering about its progress (or lack thereof).

 

Also, remember that the Android phone you buy, the Windows PC you buy and the console you buy were likely made under similar conditions as Apple products, in some cases by the same manufacturer.  People like to cling to the notion that only Apple makes products using low-cost Chinese labor, and that their Samsung Galaxy Note or Dell XPS was made by some well-paid person working 40-hour weeks with breaks for hot cocoa and massages.  The truth, however, is very different.

 

Conditions are improving, but your beef isn't with Apple, it's with Chinese manufacturing standards.