South Korean business magnate and Vice President of Samsung Group Lee Jae Yong has been charged by prosecutors from the South Korean government today. The indictment follows his arrest on Friday the 17th of this month. The arrest of the forty-eight-year-old followed the issuance of an arrest warrant by a judge at the Seoul Central District. Soon after, he was taken to a jail outside Seoul.
Mr. Yong, known professionally in the West as Jay Y. Lee was indicted on multiple charges including bribery and embezzlement. “Special prosecutors today accused Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-Yong… for corruption, embezzlement, hiding of assets overseas… and perjury,” Lee Kyu-Chul said. Mr. Lee serves as spokesman for the team probing this corruption case. Four other Samsung officials were indicted with Mr. Lee.
Mr. Yong’s formal charge is a surprising turn and potential breakthrough in South Korea’s struggle against corruption. The efforts have involved numerous decades of law enforcement trying to unfair ties between the South Korean government and some family-owned conglomerates operating within South Korea’s territory.
The heir to Samsung’s arrest was due to his alleged payment of tens of millions of dollars to President Park. He is also suspected of providing favors to President Park’s jailed friend Choi Soon-sil. The money paid and favors done for the President were in exchange for the government’s support in a merger deal that was to took place in 2015 between two Samsung affiliates. This merger helped Lee to be able to obtain wealth and leadership of Samsung group from his father.
The corruption scandal has led to President Park’s parliamentary impeachment. It has also resulted in the resignation of several of Samsung’s top officials. Samsung group has said in a statement that senior group executives at the company had resigned. These included Vice Chairman Choi Gee-sung and President Chang Choong-ki. The company further said that Samsung affiliates would manage themselves independently. The management would occur through co-operation between chief executives in the respective firms and Samsung’s board of directors. Samsung also said that it had dismantled its cooperate strategy group following its Chief’s arrest and current indictment. In December, Mr. Yong had promised that he would scrap Samsung’s cooperate strategy group amid his accusations of bribery.
Prosecutors also accused Park of letting her friend Choi control some government procedures so as to extort money from Samsung and other highly notable companies.
South Korea’s former Minister for Health, Moon Hyung-Po, has also been indicted. His indictment is based on charges that he pressured the National Pension Service to support the Samsung merger. The support was despite the fund’s stake in one of the companies lost estimated hundreds of millions of dollars in value due to the merger mentioned above.
There are currently discussions underway on whether President’s park rule will be ended prematurely so as to seek a successor in an early election.
The arrest and indictment of someone as influential as Mr. Lee and the impeachment of Madam Park show South Korea’s efforts in eliminating corruption.
