Horse, impeachment and hereditary prince

Samsung corporation is back in the news headlines. In Seoul, the official reason for the fire of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone is named - shortcomings in the design of batteries. Meanwhile, the scandal is gaining momentum, which inflicts no less reputation losses: the vice president of Samsung Lee Zheh Yong goes through the case of corruption at the top: on the day the Samsung shares fell by 2.5% to the court

“I am here for the fifth time, now I even took the baby in a stroller,” the school teacher from Seoul tells us. “Now the fate of the nation is being decided.”

“We all know that President Pak is a former leader of the ruling conservative party Sanuridan, who expresses the interests of primarily large business and wealthy people,” explains Lee, who has come to a protest in Seoul from Busan. - And it turns out that behind the back of the common people, she “knocked out” her divisions with the help of the top of Samsung. No, we won’t tolerate it. ”

We and Lee are participants in the Tuptra of the Turely Protest march in Seoul, which has passed over the past two months for the 12th time. There were a sea - more than 200 thousand people. All of them demanded that the Constitutional Court of South Korea approve the December decision of the Parliament on impeachment to the President of the Republic of Korea Pak Kyn Hyo, which is suspected of corruption. And they also demanded to re-interrogate and arrest Samsung Vice President Lee Zheh Yon, the actual head of the company involved in this scandal, as well as the heads of other companies that fell under suspicion.

But why, in this case, the Koreans generally voted in past elections for Pak Kyn Hyo?

“So she is unmarried,” she answers without blinking an eye. - When we chose her, we thought that since she had no family, then there was no one to steal. After all, the former presidents of the country also came across corruption, and they, as a rule, were engaged in pair of fraud with members of their families*. However, this time we were mistaken. ”

“An independent prosecutor’s commission is sure: Choi and President Pak collected money from Samsung and other Korean companies in sports funds in their personal interests, that is, these are bribes. The bribes transferred by the president’s friend is the same as a bribe to the president himself "

Funds for old age

Lee ** Je Yong is the only son and heir to Gon Hi, the owner and president of Samsung, one of the largest South Korean Chebolei ***. The 75-year-old Lee Sr. in recent years has been seriously ill, after the Korean newspapers periodically publish rumors about his death in 2014 in 2014. In order for the heir who holds the position of vice president to be able to control the main assets of the Samsung group, in 2015 the merger of two key companies in Chebool-Samsung Construction & Trading Corporation (C & T) and CheIL Industries. It was not easy to do this-to combine business structures, supporting the state pension corporation was required. According to the investigation, in order to receive this support, the vice president ordered to transfer $ 36 million to the K-Sport sports funds and K-Sport. And behind these funds, Choi Song Sil, a friend of the president of South Korea Pak Kyn Hyo, was behind these funds.

A scandal with funds-due to the illegal intervention of Mrs. Choi and her influence on state affairs in Korea, he was called “Chkhwesusilgate”-caused the temporary (so far) detachment of Park Kyn Hyo from office. The funds, according to investigators, were created not at all to support sports, but in order to finance the personal needs of Choi and to provide a comfortable old age for both friends. In addition, the heir to Samsung allegedly sponsored the enthusiasm for the riding of his daughter Choi, who is called Jung Jura, and gave her a very expensive thoroughbred horse.

“An independent prosecutor’s commission, which is investigating the scandal, is sure: Choi and President Pak collected money from Samsung and other Korean companies to sports funds in their personal interests, that is, these are bribes. The bribes transferred to the president’s friend is the same as a bribe by the president himself, ”explains in a conversation with NT Seoul Lawyer Kim Kil tone.

In the fall of 2016, 60-year-old Choi Sun was arrested, but soon released. Now the investigators are trying to interrogate her again, but after the first interrogation on December 24, she evades from communication with them, including including a strong emotional shock. It is possible that for the interrogation of Choi they will be forcibly. Meanwhile, the 64-year-old Park Kyun Hyo is now spent days at the presidential Blue Palace: no later than March, the impeachment, for which the parliament voted, must approve or reject the Constitutional Court.

Round lost

In addition to corruption of Samsung vice president, Lee Zheh Yon is suspected of inadequate use of the company's funds and giving false testimony at the parliamentary hearings in the case of Choi Song Sil. The case of supporting the merger of Samsung companies is a key in the investigation of Mrs. Pak's involvement in corruption. However, the prosecutors lost the first round. On January 19, the highly paid lawyers of the Samsung vice president convinced the court of the Central Administrative District of Seoul: there are no sufficient grounds for issuing a warrant for detention Lee Je Yon. According to Lee Kyu Chul, a spokeswoman for an independent prosecutor’s commission, a re-request for his arrest may be submitted. It is possible that the charges will be brought against the leaders of other Cheboles - including SK Group and Lotte Group, who also made contributions to the funds of a presidential girlfriend. Unless, of course, independent investigators do not flinch under the pressure of conservative ruling forces and super -expensive corporate lawyers will not replay them. “The suspects will probably use a pause - nothing interferes with the illegal activity of his illegal activity,” comments Kim Kil Kil, lawyer Kim Kil.

However, the prosecution does not intend to give up. The investigation clearly decided to resort to new tactics. Corruption is only one of the accusations, which is now presented to the detached president, her team and close circle. New arrests are in the country and new defendants in business are identified. So, the acting of the president, the Prime Minister of South Korea Hwan Goo An accepted the resignation of the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Cho Yun Son arrested on January 18. She, like the ex-assistant of President Kim Guy Chun, arrested on the same day, is accused of creating a black list of cultural and art workers with critical against President Pak, and therefore “wrong” political views. In addition, the special prosecutor Pak Yong Su suspect both of abuse of power, violation of human rights and perjury during parliamentary hearings.

The fate of Chebol

A separate question: how the scandal will affect the fate of the Samsung Corporation, which, according to statistics, gives work almost 100 thousand people only within the country (the able -bodied population of the Republic of Korea is 37 million people. - NT). The previous scandal around the Galaxy Note gadget (see NT No. 34 dated October 17, 2016) turned into a 10-percent deployment of shares for the corporation, its capitalization decreased by $ 26 billion, falling to almost $ 200 billion. To establish the cause of the fire, the company's engineers, together with experts of independent organizations, examined more than 200 thousand devices and 30 thousand accumulators.

Almost a three -hour January interrogation Lee Je Yon in court has not yet caused such shocks - according to experts, this is mainly due to the fact that the scandal, unlike the explosive Galaxy Note, does not directly affect Samsung users. On the contrary, on the Council of Directors of the Corporation, which was held on the eve of the Korean New Year (January 28), focused on developing new gadgets, and on video reports about this event, the emphasis was on how a relaxed and blessed atmosphere it passed. “Even if they are found guilty and imprisoned for some time, then after a certain period of imprisonment they will be released on an amnesty or secured,” Pak Kim The confidently predicts in a conversation with NT. “It is much more profitable for our country to have the current head of the largest company, which gives tens of thousands of people, than spending on its maintenance in places not so remote.”

“For our country, it is much more profitable to have the current head of the largest company, which gives tens of thousands of people, than to spend money on its maintenance in places not so remote”

However, lawyer Kim Kil, the tone is not so confident in the future: “Everything will depend on the severity of guilt. If it turns out to be behind bars, this will be significant proof that the president of South Korea, through his girlfriend, extorted money from the business. And after that, it is possible not only the approval by the Constitutional Court of the Parliament on the impeachment of PAK, but also the alteration of the entire design of the relationship between business and power through amendments to the Constitution. ”

The lawyer recalls that Cheboly at one time gave a powerful impetus to the national economy: “During the years of authoritarian rule, Park Jong Hi, in the 1960-1970s, basically provided the country with 25–45 percent economic growth, making Korea one of the Asian tigers. But over time, they became not only a brake for the development of a competitive environment, they were too closely growing up with the authorities. And this is a direct threat of democracy. " In the end, the interlocutor NT recalls that it was during the years of the reign of Park Jeon Ho, the father of the detached president of South Korea, that the corruption adhesions of large business and the highest authority developed.

In the same spirit, in the same spirit, in essence, the editorial article is maintained in the largest English -language newspaper The Korea Times: “The vicious connection of money and power should be put an end. To see Samsung, the advanced company of the world in the field of high technology, involved in the corruption scandal in the spirit of the era of Pak Zhon Ha, is sad and unpleasant. ”

Only now how to put the end of this “vicious connection” - no one has yet issued recipes.

* The ex-presidents of South Korea Jung Du Hwan and Ro Dae, as well as sons and relatives of the presidents Kim De Jun and but Mu Hyun, received a prison time or passed in the case of corruption.

** In Korean, surnames are first written, then names.

*** Chebol-South Korean form of financial and industrial groups. The conglomerate, which is a group of formally independent firms owned by certain families and under a single administrative and financial control. Cheboles arose in South Korea at the end of the Korean war and still exist.

Photo: Joni Gantz Barwick Via Ap, Lee Jin-Man, Pool/Ap Photo