hankyoreh

the chairman of the association for the maintenance of the national spirit

The Catholic Priests’ Association for Justice and former Samsung Group chief attorney Kim Yong-cheol, who made a series of corruption allegations at Samsung and touched off an independent counsel investigation against the country’s largest business conglomerate, blasted the results of the probe, saying that it “botched the opportunity for Samsung Group and our society to get off to a new start.”

In a press conference on April 23 at Jegidong Cathedral in Seoul, the group also accused Samsung of announcing “management reform plans without reflection,” adding that “there is nothing for it but to question the true motive” behind such plans.

“Samsung is blessed with freedom from all of its crimes because the independent counsel indicted (Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee and other executives) without detention, citing protection of its management control,” CPAJ said. “The father-to-son succession of management control, the root cause of illegal activities, has gained legitimacy.”

As for a set of reform plans announced by Samsung, CPAJ said flatly, “Their true motivation is questionable. Samsung’s top management didn’t say anything about their wrongdoing and blithely sought forgiveness,” it said. “Unless they confess their illegal, unlawful acts and then seek forgiveness, any reforms will draw questions about their true motives,” CPAJ said. In addition, CPAJ accused the Samsung chairman’s family of “holding on to its illegally-transfered management control with no plans to reform its complex web of cross-shareholdings.”

When asked about the resignation of the Samsung chairman, Kim, the former Samsung attorney, said, “This is just to avoid an arrest and I think he could return at any time.”

CPAJ pointed out that Samsung’s reform plans were contradictory to some of the results of the special investigation, which dismissed allegations that the conglomerate had amassed slush funds and engaged in bribery. “If the various allegations against Samsung represent actions that were taken to maintain the company’s management structure, it would be desirable for Samsung to keep its current structure and strengthen it, rather than announcing reform plans. A series of claims by the attorney Kim was an outcry for a new order,” CPAJ said. “Based on his claims, we will continue to publicize the facts about cozy relations between political power and capital.”

CPAJ declared the year 2007, when Kim made a series of revelations about corruption at Samsung, as the first year in its fight for what they termed the “democratization of the economy.”

Some CPAJ priests said they would begin a hunger strike from April 24 to 26, saying, “We are repenting our sin of laziness because we didn’t make sacrifices for the economically underprivileged, nor did we take aggressive action against the idea that ‘money talks.’”

Outside of the cathedral, some 40 activists from the People’s Alliance against the Samsung Special Investigation held a demonstration and lofted pickets that read “Demolish the CPAJ! They have forgotten their roles as priests.”

And immediately before the CPAJ press conference started, a citizen bowed deeply in front of the CPAJ, shouting, “I respect you.”

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