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Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong arrives at Seoul Central District Court for a hearing of his trial

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong continued actively denying allegations against him for a second straight day at his trial on Aug. 3.

In particular, Lee, 49, stressed that then-President Park Geun-hye (2013-16) rebuked him on several occasions during their one-on-one meetings. His account appeared aimed at emphasizing that the encounters did not take place in an atmosphere conducive to the reaching of an agreement or improperly requesting the quid pro quo arrangements that are key to the charge of (third party) bribery.

Speaking under defendant questioning at his trial that day by Seoul Central District Court’s 27th division presided over by Hon. Kim Jin-dong, Lee described being repeatedly rebuked by Park during their second and third one-on-one meetings in July 2015 and Feb. 2016. According to Lee’s testimony, Park accused Samsung of “mismanaging the Korea Equestrian Federation” during their second meeting.

“You’re worse than Hanwha [the previous KEF chair company]. You need to send [promising riders] for field training and buy them good horses, and you’re not doing that,” he recalled her as saying at the time.

Lee recalled being taken aback by the rebukes.

“It was the first time I’d ever heard that kind of language from a woman,” he said.

“Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve heard anything like it [from anyone] except when I was being chewed out by my father,” he added.

According to Lee, the scolding and atmosphere intensified with the two’s third meeting in Feb. 2016.

His testimony went even further than the previous day, when he claimed an agitated Park had described the JTBC network as a “group aiding the enemy.”

Lee once again stressed that the mood was not conducive to making requests.

“In contrast with the equestrian issue, I detected the sense that if I handled the JTBC issue poorly, she might suffer political retribution,” he said.

Lee’s testimony appeared to be part of a strategy to stress that his position was entirely a weaker one from which he would not have been able to engage in “mutual transactions” with Park.

But Lee also used some rather un-betalike language during his testimony. He summarized his feelings about the KEF rebuke during the second meeting as “annoyance.”

“My thought at the time was that I was annoyed. I wondering why she kept going on about the KEF when it wasn’t that big of a deal,” he said. His response could be seen as showing that even though the occasion was tense enough for him to be able to discuss group issues, he was not especially bothered by the president’s rebuke. Indeed, even the judge seemed puzzled by the somewhat contradictory references to “rebuke” and “annoyance.”

“It seems like you would have been concerned about the president’s references [to equestrian training]. Are you saying that you only heard [reports] about the equestrian support issue twice, around the fall of 2015 and before the third meeting?” Kim asked.

“It’s not my or the chairman’s [Lee Kun-hee] style to look into or ask about those kinds of things in detail,” Lee replied. “I thought [Future Strategy Office president] Choi Gee-sung would take care of it.”

Lee’s testimony appeared to be an attempt to distance himself from the command and reporting system by claiming the equestrian issue was handed off to staff members.

By Hyun So-eun, staff reporter

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