Samsung Group Offices Raided By Korean Prosecutors (reuters.com) 20
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: South Korean prosecutors raided the offices of Samsung Group on Wednesday, a prosecution official said, after media reports of alleged links with a confidante of President Park Geun-hye who has been indicted in an influence-peddling scandal. Prosecutors also raided South Korea's largest pension fund, the National Pension Service (NPS), an NPS spokeswoman said. The Yonhap news agency reported that investigators were probing NPS's decision to approve the $8 billion merger of Samsung CT Corp and Cheil Industries last year. The raids signaled that prosecutors are expanding their investigation into allegations of influence-peddling in the corruption scandal that has rocked Park's presidency over the relationship between the government and big businesses. NPS, the world's third-largest pension fund, has come under scrutiny by the media and civic groups over its approval as a major shareholder of the merger between two affiliates of Samsung Group, South Korea's largest family-run conglomerate. Its backing was seen as crucial to the success of the merger and some South Korean media reports said its approval came under mysterious circumstances. Prosecutors raided four locations -- the NPS headquarters, NPS Investment Management office headquarters, Samsung Group offices and the office of a former NPS investment management official -- said a prosecution official who was not authorized to speak to the media and declined to be identified. Park and her confidante, Choi Soon-sil, are under investigation for allegedly improperly pressuring major conglomerates, including the Samsung Group, to raise funds for foundations that backed Park's policy of promoting the cultural and sports communities.
In a related news (Score:1)
to avoid being caught alive, Samsung CEO turned on his Samsung Note Galaxy 7 he kept under his desk. The blast killed the CEO and injuried two policemen.
Samsung Documents and Note 7s Seized! (Score:3)
Unfortunately, mysterious fires at the prosecution offices destroyed the documents.
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Thank you, Captain Obvious! What would we ever do without you?
Strange (Score:2)
Since the end of the Korean War (and probably before) Korea has been one of the most corrupt countries on Earth, that's one of the reasons they have Chaebols.
Now, all of a sudden Koreans are worrying about their elites paying each other off for favours? It's hardly a new thing and no-one important has been prosecuted over these sorts of deals before.
I wonder what has changed?
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Maybe we set a really bad example and now everyone is trying to learn from our mistakes by cleaning their own houses?
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Now, all of a sudden Koreans are worrying about their elites paying each other off for favours? It's hardly a new thing and no-one important has been prosecuted over these sorts of deals before.
I wonder what has changed?
Actually, the Samsung CEO was prosecuted and sentenced to prison for a similar scandal years ago. IIRC, he spent very little time in prison after receiving a presidential pardon, but he was prosecuted.
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Samsung HQ raided? It must be Wednesday!
Also I think calling Korea one of the most corrupt countries is really exaggerating it when the world outside of Western Europe and North America exists. It's similar to Spain and Czech Republic, better than Italy [transparency.org] and waay better than most of everything else.
But really the whole situation is much more interesting than the company having a slush fund for bribes. An old friend of the president is accused of running a cult and influencing the president among other stuff.
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The there's this guy [wikipedia.org], pardoned for multiple crimes so he could remain on the Olympic Committee.
When one of the crimes is bribing government officials, I guess a pardon is not too far away.
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I wonder what has changed?
The same thing that almost changed in the US recently. But they managed to get the scandals in ahead of time to prevent it there.
Love that she is being hounded for bringing Corporate Social Responsibility to Korea. How dare she, burn the witch!
Huawei? (Score:2)
This is "conspiracy plot"-level of hypothesis, but maybe is this remotely linked to Huawei desire to get a bigger part of the smartphone pie and wanting to be more present?
Sure, Samsung get more publicity around their note 7 than any other exploding lithium battery, now the usual corruption scandal suddenly starting to surface the media more prominently...
This bad publicity, among other, surely serves Huawei's goals.
Might simply be simply happy coincidences. Might be some influencial chinese people pulling
Color me surprised (Score:5, Informative)
You mean the company whose offices were raided less than a decade ago because the previous CEO was maintaining a slush fund to pay off government officials [wikipedia.org] is embroiled in a fresh scandal involving the company currying illegal favor with government officials? Surely not! I thought they had left all of that behind after they allegedly bribed government officials so that the previous CEO's son could become the current CEO without the government asking any questions about the son's level of involvement in the previously mentioned crimes!
So yeah, I'm very surprised at this turn of events. Definitely didn't see it coming.
More schadenfreude (Score:1)