Samsung's former Chairman pardoned, again
By Thomas Ricker 
posted December 29th 2009 5:53AM
posted December 29th 2009 5:53AM
You know what's awesome about being the head of a South Korean chaebol? You're untouchable. After being convicted of tax evasion netting a $110 million fine and a deferred 3-year prison sentence, Lee Kun-hee, the former chairman of Samsung Group, has been pardoned by the South Korean government -- his second presidential pardon after first being convicted in 1996 of bribing former South Korean president Roh Tae-woo. Why the reprieve? Easy, so the 67 year old can help the country pursue a bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics. A Korean activist group responded to the move saying, "Granting a chaebol chairman a pardon just to host an Olympics will make South Korea a laughingstock in the international community." How true.
Great. Now I will have to wait at least 13 years before I can use Chaebol again...
@okeribok
someone please enlighten me: how is this tech news?
@Outsider I think they really wanted to do that photoshop, but wanted to get paid to do it, so just did it at work and put up a random post.
@Outsider
read the article, "former chairman of Samsung Group"
Shocking as it is it's typical of such events- just look how Russia got the Olympics, how South Africa got the Soccer World Chamionships and so on. Don't think South Korea has a lot of laugther to fear, sadly. Its only about money, not about sports, and all such decisions are influenced by bribes and similar tactics.
i am NOT a crook!
Because the Olympics Committee isn't a laughing stock already?
@(Unverified)
You sound bitter,... Are you from Chicago?
@vman81 Maybe Toronto.
@(Unverified) Oprah, is that you?
Aside from those that have read this; who outside of Korea will even know?
@PoliticalHack
well, I told this to our local bitch so expect your gf to tell you a story about Korea and Olympics tomorow ......
Compared to what Bernanke and Geitner pulled off, this is barely worth talking about. If they proceeded to put Kun-hee in charge of their tax department and let him give billions to all the other tax cheat CEOs, then they might be getting somewhere.
@psycros
You mean like preventing a global financial meltdown on the scale of the Great Depression? I am hardly saying they are perfect but what are you talking about?
@thefingerofgod If you mean by "preventing, the actions of massively overinflating the dollar even further and dropping interest rates with no end in sight, ensuring that bad assets are not liquidated, greatly increasing the power and scope of the federal government, meddling more in the subtleties of the market and ensuring future bubbles and the subsequent crashes, then yea sure... they're doing a wonderful job!
Its good to be the king.
SK has got just as bad (corrupt) corporate types and politicians as the USA has. Ain't that special!?!
@(Unverified) Dude, South Korea is the most capitalistic country on the planet as far as I'm concerned!
@Valicore Actually, in an ideal capitalistic society, people who make bad decisions like this guy would've been tossed out into the street. This smells more like corporate welfare (a form of socialism).
His name reminds of my one of my favorite sauce brands. Yum.
http://www.lkk.com/
Lol @ the picture
Getting this info from Gizmodo will make Engadget look like a laughing stock in the international community. How true.
no surprise. samsung and hyundai basically run the country.
Damn It feels good to be a gangsta.
I always thought of samsung as a pretty good company, going by their displays and their TVs, but their mobile phones are just plain garbage. Perhaps their company needs new leadership :P
:D This is a piece of cake compared to the US and their "leaders".
Now go ahead, the minus button is all the way to the right from here ->
It's sad that the world is so corrupt.
Ha! Ha! Ha! I laugh at you Korea. From a guy in Vancouver...host of the messed up 2010 Winter Oympic.
Next, a pardon for what he did after that picture was taken.
This is one of the many reasons Samsung does not have a major office in the us. But hey this is not as bad as him having his daughter boyfriend or the daughter kill in new york city in the 90's. I dont rember which it was but i do remember reading he had a hand it by paying the person to kill someone.
@danhawk911
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1528743/posts
His daughter.
doesn't reprieve mean a temporary pardon. But this looks like a permanent pardon, no?
Mr Ricker, a little less skim-reading me thinks?!
$110 million? - nope 110 Billion won ~$94 million USD
Winter olympics... who cares...