Samsung's Lee Kun-hee carefully considering his options: prompt or prolonged resignation

Not a lot of people in the US know the name Lee Kun-hee, but he's the chairman and son of the founder of the world's largest gadget company: Samsung. And he's also at the epicenter of one of the craziest corruption scandals the industry has seen in years. Kun-hee and his cronies have already been subject to government probes, and the disgraced chairman has already basically admitted his guilt and responsibility for Samsung's bribery wrongdoings, but now he's made the next ever so gingerly step towards the exit by stating, "I will deeply think about reshuffling the corporate management structure and the management lineup, including myself." Sure, think it over, take all the time you need -- just don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, man.

[jbspeyer @ Apr 12th 2008 1:21AM]

I just want to know...does anyone SINCERELY care?

Like, really?

JBS

[Zorque @ Apr 12th 2008 1:59AM]

Yes.

[Aguiluz @ Apr 12th 2008 3:59AM]

I thought this was NVIDIA's CEO after his Whoop Ass stunt.

[94 taurus owner @ Apr 12th 2008 10:44AM]

Not really.

[Juaquin @ Apr 12th 2008 2:11AM]

Well at least he has the honor to admit it and step down like a real man. Most CEO's nowadays would just laugh their way to the bank and not give a damn.

[Matt @ Apr 12th 2008 2:30PM]

If he pulled this shit in America 9999 lawyers from his competition would storm Samsung with pitchforks and torches. When the dust in the courtroom settled they'd be lucky to be left with a red swingline stapler.

Roll the clock back to 90's before we changed the laws on white collar crime and yeah he's prob get away with it.

[klew @ Apr 12th 2008 2:12AM]

Go to your room! And no playing with your hundreds of wonderful toys!

[LPXXFAINTXX @ Apr 12th 2008 2:18AM]

That guy has some round eyes for an asian.

[Faar @ Apr 13th 2008 9:24PM]

He's also only about a million billion times richer than you, so nice try on your lame attempt trying to belittle him (even though he is a crook).

Pretty much the only thing that sucks worse than greed is envy, and you're showing pretty strong traits of that, my friend.

[kakapo @ Apr 12th 2008 2:34AM]

Golly gee willerkers Ryan - you sure do understand Asian culture, don't you!

Brilliant commentary - truly!

And LPXXFAINTXX - nice - wonderful RACIST comment!

Engadget may hav new makeup but it looks like some of the same S.P.A.M. is present.

You figure out what that means. (Hint- research Jay Leno's definition of SPAM)...

When someone is actually accountable and takes responsibility AND doesn't play the victim - which is what is happening here - you still need to put the knife in, aye?

[lowteckh @ Apr 12th 2008 2:47AM]

Well, this society/world is still plagued by the side-effects of celebrity gossip and bashing which unfortunately has bled itself to these tech blogs too.. : |

[Zorque @ Apr 12th 2008 3:15AM]

Taking responsibility is pretty cool, but not actually committing the crime is better, imo.

[DrFrankTM @ Apr 12th 2008 11:11AM]

It could be considered a racist comment. Maybe it is. I just wanted to point out that double eyelid surgery is actually fairly common in South Korea for the rich and the famous. Koreans care a lot about their appearance. Taking care of yourself so as to be easy on the eye is considered a form of respect for others. And for some reason, they like big round eyes. Now I have no clue whether that guy had the surgery or not. I just wanted to point out that it's a real possibility.

[Ref @ Apr 12th 2008 1:41PM]

Double eyelid surgery doesn't make your eyes bigger or rounder, all it does is put double eyefolds above your eyes. And it's only fashionable for the women.

[Chad @ Apr 12th 2008 2:50AM]

Sometimes it takes corporate corruption to deal with corruption in the Government. We all do what we have to do to get things done.

Favors make the world go round.

[Oppo @ Apr 12th 2008 3:16AM]

lee Kun = http://www.corruption.com

[JC @ Apr 12th 2008 3:28AM]

Engadget you make it sound like this is something new... i doubt this is the world's craziest corruption scandals, its just one that is out in the open. All the fortune 500 company didnt get there without corruption, you wanna get rich u gotta play dirty.

[ethana2 @ Apr 12th 2008 3:53AM]

When Steve Jobs discovered that, the fate of OSX was determined.
..but you are wrong. Sometimes you just have to play really, really hard.
Whenever two competitors try to be evil, one or both will lose, period.
That is part of why HD-DVD died. Evil was good, and Blu-Ray was better at it.
If HD-DVD was unencrypted dirac and vorbis, it would still have a niche today.

"There is only one lord of the rings, and he does not share power."

[Matt @ Apr 12th 2008 2:44PM]

Did you just quote Lord of the Rings in a corporate crime story?

nerd alert...

[Jason @ Apr 12th 2008 4:30AM]

Being stationed in Korea and working with the local nationals on a daily basis this is a huge event for the South Korean people. They are always talking about and covering it on all the Korean news channels.

Korean culture places a lot of value on honor and respect. I believe he cares greatly cause he made his father's name look extremely bad.

[Simgamer @ Apr 12th 2008 9:40AM]

Isn't that part of why we are here? I get more that a few good laughs from Engadget's tech coverage, keep it up guys.

[Francois Laflamme @ Apr 12th 2008 11:14AM]

P.S. Just to make it clear, I was replying to kakapo's comment.

[DaLa @ Apr 12th 2008 12:50PM]

Hey Sammy, you want to get the heat off you? Buy AMD!

[Bad Juju @ Apr 12th 2008 2:11PM]

If the probe finds that this involves Pouyoyang and supplying Missle Guiding Technology to N. Korea with China pulling the strings all the way, this could get real good, real quick! It certainly would affect the Value of the Won vs. Yen, $ & Euro as the markets dropped and Fuel went up just from N.K's "test firing" those dummy rockets recently. And we all know that China is capable of anything when advancing there own economy!

[ghex88 @ Apr 12th 2008 3:01PM]

At least someone should give the guy credit for making the Samsung brand known worldwide.
And it amazes me how apple fanboi loves to bring Apple into any issue even this one that had nothing to do with Apple.

[ManekiNeko @ Apr 13th 2008 2:47AM]

He looks like Dick Clark after the stroke.

[Josh F @ Apr 14th 2008 12:07AM]

미안요 이건히 바이바이!! ㅋㅋㅋ

[Nelson @ Apr 14th 2008 11:01PM]

I thought he stabbed himself with a sword after he said, "I have not honor" I guess Koreans are the future.