Samsung Verdict Sends a Tough New Message to South Korea Inc. - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/25/business/samsung-bribery-embezzlement-conviction-jay-lee-south-korea.html
More than two decades ago, South Korean prosecutors indicted the chairman of the powerful Samsung conglomerate on charges of bribing the president. He was let off with a suspended sentence and then a presidential pardon.
About a decade later, he was indicted again, on tax evasion and embezzlement charges. And again he escaped prison time.
The message was clear: Samsung was essentially untouchable, and the family that ran the company wielded the true power in South Korea.
On Friday, the country’s courts sent a different message.
Lee Jae-yong, the third-generation heir to the Samsung empire, was sentenced to five years in prison over a bribery scandal that has already contributed to the downfall of the country’s former president and shaken the country’s political and economic foundations.
It was the most remarkable sentence yet for a South Korean business titan, and a sign that the country is no longer willing to offer its business leaders political impunity in exchange for untrammeled economic growth.
