hankyoreh

Graphic by Ji-ya

After Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong was taken into legal custody on Jan. 18, the majority of the South Korean press once again trumpeted claims of a “crisis at the Samsung Group.” These newspapers seem terrified that Lee’s incarceration will create major problems both for management at Samsung and for the national economy as a whole.

These papers both reject the legal judgment of the court and claim that the “victim” was sent to prison. Such behavior is witnessed whenever the head of a chaebol faces legal judgment, but this time around the strained arguments are particularly farfetched.

In an editorial on Jan. 19, the Chosun Ilbo claimed that “an extortion case was turned into a bribery case” and lamented the “fate of businesspeople” who are trying to keep their balance as they “walk along the top of a prison wall.”

Korea’s business newspapers adopted a similar stance. The Korea Economic Daily said that “politics has put a businessperson in jail,” while the Seoul Economic Daily said that “businesspeople should not be sacrificed for political power.” Such claims suggest that Lee was prosecuted as some kind of sacrificial lamb to political power.

These articles repeat verbatim Lee’s argument that he wasn’t the person giving a bribe but the victim of extortion, and they fully reject the legal decision confirmed by the Supreme Court.

Newspapers that are so quick to talk about “the rule of law” can’t even seem to remember “equality before the law” when confronted with the head of a chaebol. They should be ashamed of themselves.

The high court that tried Lee’s case, which had been thrown back by the Supreme Court, said that Lee had “aggressively bribed” Park and “implicitly requested that Park use her presidential authority to aid his succession” to control the Samsung Group. The court found that Lee had embezzled company money to give Park a bribe, so that she would help him assume management rights over the group.

Lee committed this illegal act for his own personal benefit, not even for corporate profit. The victims here are Samsung the corporation and its executives, employees and stockholders.

A chaebol corporation is not the personal possession of the chaebol head. It’s outrageous to misrepresent the prosecution of a chaebol head as an attack on that corporation.

Many have also argued that Lee’s imprisonment will create a crisis in the management of Samsung’s global operations, including its operations in new industries and large-scale investments. But there’s little evidence to back up such exaggerated claims.

Samsung Electronics’ business performance improved markedly in 2017, even as Lee was in jail. Claims that Lee’s imprisonment will ultimately cause serious harm to the national economy are even more absurd.

Are those pundits seriously arguing that illegal acts by chaebol heads should be forever placed outside the bounds of Korean courts’ jurisdiction, and all that for the national economy? That’s not just absurd — it’s a malicious attempt to hoodwink the public.

The time has come to set aside these anachronistic attempts to muddy the waters about chaebol heads’ corruption and illegality by stirring up groundless panic. If these newspapers are genuinely worried about Samsung, they should encourage Lee to keep his promise about abiding by the law in corporate management, and watch carefully to see whether he actually does so.

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