A Samsung bribe is worth a thousand votes

It's embarrassing enough to be embroiled in scandal after scandal, particularly if you're Samsung, whose identity is indelibly linked with that of the proud, South Korean nation (and responsible for 20% of its exports). Now this, photographic evidence of an alleged bribe from Lee Kyung-hoon, a former in-house lawyer for Samsung Electronics, as proof of Samsung's nefarious efforts to coerce government officials into glossing over past, corporate indiscretions. The 5 million won (about $5,450) bribe disguised as a book was supposedly given to Lee Young-chul, the former Secretary to the South Korean president, Roh Moo-hyun, for Legal Affairs, on January 26, 2004. He gave it back, one month later. The evidence was presented today by the "People's Action" civil group in the hopes that the government would open an independent counsel to probe the activities of Samsung and its chairman, Lee Kun-hee.

[Via Chosun, thanks Soc Gi]

[TestSubject86 @ Nov 19th 2007 4:06AM]

Does it really count as a bribe if they only use monopoly money?

I keed, I keed.

[Xavier Gill @ Nov 19th 2007 6:06AM]

This happens legally in America only its called 'lobbying' and instead of giving bribes to politicians, organisations give 'donations'.

[- @ Nov 19th 2007 4:14AM]

$5,450 is more of an insult than a bribe.

[Jeff @ Nov 19th 2007 4:17AM]

Exactly why he gave it back.

[LordFarkward @ Nov 19th 2007 4:55AM]

well played, guys, well played.

[nope @ Nov 19th 2007 4:31AM]

you can't even buy a decent samsung shit with that kind of money.

[Brian Sexton @ Nov 19th 2007 4:37AM]

So let me see if I understand this article correctly: are you saying that the president of South Korea is named Roh, but everyone else in South Korea is named Lee? If so, does that mean that those are both actually titles, with Roh meaning "president" and Lee meaning "not the president"?

[eugene @ Nov 19th 2007 5:07AM]

couldn't think of somthing witty so you thought you'd just post somthing ignorant instead?

[Twitchy @ Nov 19th 2007 5:09AM]

O RohLee?

[Jeremah @ Nov 19th 2007 5:09AM]

What does that even mean?

[LordFarkward @ Nov 19th 2007 5:11AM]

lol i actually found it quite funny

[Brian Sexton @ Nov 19th 2007 6:55AM]

> couldn't think of somthing witty so you thought you'd just post somthing ignorant instead?

Couldn't think of something logical, such as a joke referring merely to a funny coincidence in an article, so you just thought you'd post a foolish indirect accusation indicating that you are probably ignorant of both humor and logic instead? And spelling? And capitalization? And intelligent use of the word "ignorant"?

If the article had cited a few names from any place and all shared a common surname, personal name, secondary personal name, or nickname, I would have made the same joke with different names; the location was incidental.

If you can't get a sense of humor, "eugene" (presumably "Eugene" to those of us who make more frequent use of our shift keys), at least get a clue.

[eugene @ Nov 19th 2007 7:57AM]

ah, gotta love people who get all bent out of shape over spelling. sorry dude, I'm not in highschool and I'm not a secretary so I don't really care. But I'm sure your high school teacher must be real proud that you aced your "pretend you're an editor" assignment. Gold star for you.

[Ryan @ Nov 20th 2007 6:37PM]

Technically it's not real proud. It's, "really proud." Just for future reference.

[Tony @ Nov 19th 2007 12:17PM]

@Brian

Your writing is terrible. You shouldn't be criticizing anyone.

Learn how to use commas. I've never seen so many sentence fragments in one paragraph.

[Brian Sexton @ Nov 19th 2007 5:31PM]

If my writing is so terrible, Tony, please feel free to educate me by breaking it down and showing me where and how these supposed problems are? Where exactly are all of these sentence fragments? Would you have preferred em dashes in my first sentence to "eugene" instead of the two terrible commas?

Of course, the criticisms in my response to "eugene" were secondary to my response to an unwarranted accusation. Edit away, though, if it makes you happy.

After you are done nitpicking my supposedly terrible writing, perhaps you would like to discuss your invalid logic, Tony. Even if my writing is terrible, that has no bearing on the validity of specific criticisms.

[Brian Sexton @ Nov 19th 2007 5:33PM]

Aside from ending a statement-form request with a question mark. That was certainly an error on my part; I think I changed the form of the request. Oops. Ha ha.

[Jack @ Nov 19th 2007 6:11AM]

Honestly, seeing that amount i think samsung must hire a 'Bribe Co-ordinator'

Where do i send my CV ??

[tom @ Nov 19th 2007 7:32AM]

i don't believe it, seems an awfully high risk for such a small amount of money, samsung are massive and a few grand is a piss in the ocean

[coach @ Nov 19th 2007 7:36AM]

Maybe this is just a setup. A former Samsung in-house lawyer with a possible grudge? I'm not blindly believing this.

[Baluki @ Nov 19th 2007 7:37AM]

In a lot of other countries, this kind of stuff is considered a normal part of business. I don't know if South Korea is one of those countries, but it's something to consider.

Although, if it was, they wouldn't be hiding it in a book...

[Grant @ Nov 19th 2007 11:16AM]

agreed.
In nearly every country bribes are considered normal parts of business, even if they are never on the books. If it's not a cash bribe, you'll need to take a top official out to dinner to a public part of town, buy an expensive gift, or hire them to "consult" in their area.
Bribes are actually legal almost everywhere when it is just to make someone do the job faster, then it's just considered an "expediting cost".

[Wwhat @ Nov 19th 2007 7:51AM]

5 million equals 5 grand, why don't they fix that like turkey did, seems a bit silly to pay 100 grand for a pack of gum.

[ca @ Nov 19th 2007 8:46AM]

why should they "fix" anything? that's the way koreans count money dude.

[Wwhat @ Nov 19th 2007 7:14PM]

Because using huge numbers when dealing with money is just not convenient in daily life.

[Wwhat @ Nov 19th 2007 7:15PM]

Because using such insanely large numbers is simply not convenient.

[Wwhat @ Nov 19th 2007 7:15PM]

Sorry site had a hiccup, excuse the double reply.

[John @ Nov 19th 2007 11:20AM]

This actually speaks volumes towards South Korea's corrupt governing body, as opposed to Samsung's wrongdoings (I'm not saying that I advocate bribing government officials).

For years, the Korean government has been pretty much shady and not the most ethical and transparent bodies of government in the world. And for years, I bet, they've been taking bribes from the Korean Chaebol (Conglomerates) such as Samsung, LG, Hyundai and etc. Essentially, over the years, the Korean government has become a figurehead of sorts, representing the interests of these Korean Chaebols. Hopefully, outing this bribery of Samsung by the "People's Action" Civil group means a reform in the Democratic Process of South Korea very soon.

[eugene @ Nov 19th 2007 4:13PM]

The sad thing is, South Korea today is a lot better in terms of corruption and graft than a few years ago. The asian bubble collapse forced South Korea into some serious economic reform in order for the IMF to help them out.

It's going to take some time though to get corruption down to levels western companies/governments will tolerate/understand. Unfortunately, in Korean and Chinese culture bribery is pretty common place and it will take a lot for the older generations to re-learn this.

[none @ Nov 19th 2007 5:07PM]

why r u including china in this?

[eugene @ Nov 19th 2007 6:51PM]

because bribery and graft are common place and even expected in east asian countries. Inlcuding Japan and China. For that matter, you can also throw in nepotism and cronyism.

[eugene @ Nov 19th 2007 7:04PM]

Okay brian, here's why your statment is ignorant:

1. In the article, Mr. Roh is specifically called the "South Korean President". If "Roh" was the Korean title for president, why would you write: "the South Korean President President Moo-hyun"? It's not even mildly amusing, it's just redundant.

2. Koreans, as well as most east asians, put their surname before their family name.

3. "Lee" is a common last name in Korea. And your little "joke" makes more than a passing reference to other deragotary "jokes" which center on the lack of diversity of asian surnames.

So yeah, I think ignorant really sums it up. Your joke fails on many levels. It doesn't even properly reference the article, it has little understanding of the culture which you're commenting on and it dregs up other jokes founded on racism and bigotry.

But, nice try on trying to turn the situation from your classless and bigoted comments and trying to turn this into your own little english class.

[man @ Nov 20th 2007 4:56PM]

It's so sad when someone tries to justify racism as humor.