Lee Jae-yong will not fall through the cracks. And the world empire created by his grandfather Lee Byung-chull and developed by his father Lee Kun-hee will not have helped him out. The heir to the South Korean group Samsung was sentenced, Monday, January 18, to a two-and-a-half-year prison term in Seoul, in a vast corruption scandal that had shaken the whole country, according to the Yonhap agency. In fact, the technological giant, the world’s leading manufacturer of smartphones and memory chips, is deprived of its chief executive and decision-maker.
Officially, Lee Jae-yong is the vice president of Samsung Electronics. But in fact, he is the one who has taken up the torch at the head of the conglomerate since his father Lee Kun-hee, the architect of the group’s global take-off, stepped back due to health problems. The patriarch passed away in October. Samsung is by far the largest of the “chaebols”, those family industrial empires that dominate the 12e Mondial economy. Its overall turnover represents one fifth of South Korea’s GDP, and is therefore crucial to the country’s economic health.
Immediate detention
Lee Jae-yong, who was on a retrial in the drawer case that led to the 2017 impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye and subsequent incarceration, was convicted of bribery and embezzlement. He “voluntarily paid bribes and asked the president to use her power to facilitate her smooth succession” to the head of the conglomerate, the Seoul Central District Court said in its judgment. “It is very unfortunate that Samsung, the country’s largest company and a global flagship of innovation, is repeatedly involved in crimes as soon as political power changes. ”
The 52-year-old leader refused to answer journalists’ questions when he arrived free in court. After the verdict was announced, he was immediately taken into custody. Some analysts believe that this incarceration will create a vacuum that could harm the decision-making process at the head of the group, in particular concerning its major future investments. “This is really a huge blow, a big crisis for Samsung,” said Kim Dae-jong, professor at Sejong University.
Bribes at the heart of the scandal
In this case, Lee Jae-yong was sentenced in 2017 to five years in prison for corruption, embezzlement and other crimes. On appeal, most of the corruption charges were dismissed and Lee Jae-yong received a suspended prison sentence. But the Supreme Court then ordered a new trial. The case involves millions of dollars the group had paid to the president’s shadow confidante, Choi Soon-sil. Bribes that were, according to the prosecution, intended to facilitate the transfer of power to the head of the conglomerate, while Lee Kun-hee was bedridden after a heart attack in 2014.
The Supreme Court finally confirmed last Thursday the sentence of former President Park to 20 years in prison. This scandal had once again underlined the troubled connections between the South Korean power and the great families who control the “chaebols”, these conglomerates at the origin of the prodigious recovery of the country after the Korean War. In May 2020, the heir offered a rare apology to the media, especially for the controversial succession process that allowed him to take the lead of the group founded by his grandfather Lee Byung-chull.
Lee Jae-yong even promised that he would be the last in the family line of succession, and that his children would not inherit it. His father and grandfather were also in trouble with the law, but neither served a prison sentence. For its part, Samsung Electronics announced ten days ago that it was anticipating a 25% jump in operating profit in the fourth quarter, boosted by the very strong demand for chips induced by the rise in teleworking in the context of the pandemic.
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