hankyoreh

On the afternoon of Aug. 29

In the final trial of former president Park Geun-hye, Park’s confidante Choi Soon-sil, and Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, the South Korean Supreme Court made a judgment against the inappropriate favors habitually exchanged by politicians and businesspeople. On Aug. 29, the full bench of the Supreme Court ruled that Lee had in fact given a bribe in order to ease his accession to management control of the Samsung Group, ordering the appellate court to retry some of the charges against all three individuals. Amid a growing effort to deny the very fact of the influence-peddling three years after the candlelit revolution, it’s highly significant that the highest court in the land has expressly confirmed the illegality of the favors traded by the country’s highest politicians and business figures.

Although the charges against Park and Choi on the one hand and Lee on the other represent two sides of the same coin — since they were implicated in the giving and receiving of bribes — earlier rulings have been highly inconsistent. When Park and Choi’s initial convictions were appealed, the high court found that, generally speaking, there had been a concerted effort to transfer management rights of the Samsung Group to Lee and that bribes had been given to advance that effort. The same court concluded that “implicit requests” had been made in particular instances.

But in an appellate review of Lee’s initial conviction, the court acquitted him of bribery despite acknowledging that the merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries had worked out to Lee’s advantage, a ruling that was criticized as exemplifying the cynical maxim that the wealthy get off easy in the courts.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court concluded that Samsung’s financial support of the Korea Winter Sports Elite Center was a “third-party bribe” that was in a quid-pro-quo relationship with actions taken by Park in her capacity as president. “Inappropriate requests can be expressed implicitly, and the official action being requested need not be concretely expressed,” the court said in its verdict. That leaves no doubt that there was a serious flaw in the ruling by the appellate court, which regarded the case as representing not a case of a bribe given with the hope of getting something in return but a case of intimidation by the most powerful political figure in the country.

The appellate court had found that three horses given by Samsung to Choi didn’t constitute a bribe since Samsung had technically retained their ownership, but the Supreme Court also reversed that ruling. Concluding that there had been an understanding between the two parties that Choi would have the effective authority to use and dispose of the horses, while Samsung retained ostensible ownership, the court said that the price at which the horses had been purchased ought to be regarded as a bribe.

The result is a retrial for Park, on the grounds that it was illegal for the bribery to be combined with other charges against her in calculating her sentence, and a retrial for Lee, on the grounds that the amount of the bribe he gave to Choi and the amount of the money he embezzled exceeds what was acknowledged by the appellate court. Since the 1.6 billion won (US$1.32 million) given to the Korea Winter Sports Elite Center and the 3.4 billion won (US$2.81 million) paid for the horses were both recognized as bribes, that brings the total to well over 5 billion won (US$1.14 million), which means that Lee’s sentence is unlikely to be suspended this time around. And if the punishment for Park’s various bribes is calculated separately, her prison sentence is likely to become even longer.

Justice prevails in the long run. Anyone could have seen through the argument advanced by Lee’s attorneys — and swallowed by the appellate court —that Lee had coughed up billions of won because of the president’s “intimidation” without having anything to gain. The offices of the Blue House senior secretaries for civil affairs and policy planning and government agencies including the Fair Trade Commission and the National Pension Service were effectively dragooned to facilitate the merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries. The ongoing investigation into Samsung Biologics continues to turn up evidence that Samsung committed unethical and downright illegal behavior, including fraudulent accounting, in order to inflate the face value of Cheil Industries, to Lee’s benefit. But far from acknowledging their illegal actions, Lee and his associates insist they weren’t even aware of them, while Park and Choi have clung to the assertion that the charges against them are nothing more than political revenge.

Lee and Samsung have never once offered a decent apology for the damage they’ve inflicted on the National Pension Fund, which is built on the sweat and blood of the Korean people. In light of that, it’s hardly appropriate for Samsung to offer a halfhearted apology that “we will be faithful to the company’s original role to ensure that past mistakes aren’t repeated” while appealing for “support and assistance so that Samsung can overcome this crisis and contribute to the national economy during a time of growing uncertainty in the economy.” While Korea is facing an economic downturn and a trade dispute with Japan, Samsung better not even think of repeating its old trick of asking for leniency because of its importance in an economic crisis.

It’s also disgusting to see that Park, who was once elected to lead the nation, continues to refuse to participate in her trials. Park is still trotting out her claim that she’s the victim of political revenge (when apologizing to the public is the least she could do) while conservative groups are calling for a pardon; both actions are not only deceitful, but are also a betrayal of the 16 million Koreans who took part in the candlelit rallies. The lesson of the past three years is that history can’t be rewritten. We hope that the high court will return a sober judgment in the retrials.

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]