from the caught-with-his-hand-in-the쿠키-항아리 dept.
Samsung's vice chairman Lee Jae-yong, aka Jay Y. Lee, has become a suspect in a corruption probe linked to the South Korean President:
A South Korean special prosecutor's office will question Samsung Group leader Jay Y. Lee as a suspect in a widening influence-peddling scandal that may force President Park Geun-hye from office. Prosecutors have been looking into whether Samsung payments of about 30 billion won ($25 million) for a business and foundations backed by Park's friend, Choi Soon-sil, were connected to a 2015 decision by the national pension fund to back a controversial merger of two group affiliates.
Park could become South Korea's first democratically elected leader to leave office early after parliament voted in December to impeach her over the corruption scandal, which has triggered big weekly rallies calling for her to step down. The impeachment must be upheld or overturned by the Constitutional Court.
Meanwhile, protests against President Park Geun-hye, who has been impeached but has resisted stepping down, are heating up:
A Buddhist monk in South Korea has died after setting himself on fire in protest over a 2015 deal struck with Japan on wartime sex slaves. The monk, named as Venerable Jung-won, 64, staged the protest on Saturday at a rally against President Park Geun-hye. He died on Monday night at a hospital in Seoul due to multiple organ failures caused by his burns.
[...] In 2015, Ms Park reached a deal with Japan which saw it promise to pay into a fund for South Korean women who were forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War Two. As part of the deal, the two countries agreed that the compensation and an apology would "finally and irreversibly" resolve the matter.
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South Korean President Park Geun-hye has been impeached:
South Korea's Parliament voted on Friday to impeach President Park Geun-hye, an aloof conservative who took a hard line against North Korea and rose to power with strong support from those who revered her father, the military dictator Park Chung-hee. The vote against Ms. Park, the nation's first female leader, followed weeks of damaging disclosures in a corruption scandal that has all but paralyzed the government and produced the largest street protests in the nation's history. Her powers will now be suspended as the Constitutional Court considers whether to remove her from office.
Ms. Park has been accused of allowing a shadowy confidante, the daughter of a religious sect leader, to exercise remarkable influence on matters ranging from choosing top government officials to her wardrobe, and of helping her extort tens of millions of dollars from South Korean companies. The scandal, which gained national attention less than two months ago, has cast a harsh light on collusion between the presidency and big business in one of Asia's most dynamic economies.
Parliament's motion for impeachment, accusing Ms. Park of "extensive and serious violations of the Constitution and the law," will now be taken up by the Constitutional Court, which has six months to decide whether the charges are true and merit her ouster.
The impeachment bill passed 234-56.
Also at BBC, DW, and the Washington Post.
It's about time for Jay Y. Lee to flee the country, as South Korean prosecutors are seeking a warrant for his arrest:
Prosecutors are seeking a warrant to arrest Samsung Group's Jay Y. Lee for allegations including bribery and embezzlement, a stunning turn for the scion of South Korea's richest family groomed for decades to take over the company from his father.
Lee, 48, the de facto head of the Samsung Group and vice chairman of Samsung Electronics Co., is accused of participating in payments that Samsung made to a close friend of South Korean President Park Geun-hye in exchange for government support in the company's succession planning. A court will still have to determine whether to approve the warrant, which was announced by prosecutors in a briefing on Monday. A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
The special prosecutor, Park Young-soo, said the money represented bribes from Samsung. He said that he had asked a Seoul court to issue an arrest warrant for Mr. Lee; it usually takes a few days for a court to decide whether to grant such a warrant.
If Mr. Lee is arrested, it will be a landmark in South Korea's efforts to fight corruption in the country's powerful family-controlled conglomerates, known as chaebol, and could disrupt his efforts to inherit management control of Samsung, whose tentacles in telecommunications, shipbuilding and a range of other industries reach throughout South Korea's economy.
Previously: Samsung Vice Chairman a Suspect in South Korean Presidential Bribery Probe
The South Korean Presidential corruption scandal extends to the censorship of film and art:
South Korea's culture ministry apologized on Monday for a blacklist of artists which excluded them from government support, admitting there was a systematic effort to sideline critics of scandal-plagued President Park Geun-hye. The apology was the clearest admission yet of the blacklist of cultural and media figures critical of the impeached leader that has led to the arrests of her former chief of staff and the culture minister at the weekend for abuse of power.
"It is distressing and shameful that the ministry, which should have been the bulwark for freedom of artistic expression and creativity, has caused questions of fairness in assisting culture and arts with a list of artists to be excluded from public support," Vice Culture Minister Song Soo-keun said.
The blacklist, part of which was seen by Reuters, contains the names of thousands of actors, writers, film directors and others. It includes acclaimed film directors like Cannes award winner Park Chan-wook, Venice Film Festival top prize winner Kim Ki-duk and actors Moon So-ri and Song Gang-ho. None was immediately available for comment. Faced with a political crisis earlier in her term, the government and state entities used the blacklist as "guidelines" to penalize artists and censor content, a special prosecutor's office investigating an influence-peddling scandal said last week.
Related: South Korea Broadens Internet Censorship to Innocuous Music Videos
South Korean President Park Geun-hye Impeached
Samsung Vice Chairman a Suspect in South Korean Presidential Bribery Probe
Update: BBC and Reuters report that South Korean President Park Geun-hye has been removed from office. The Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment in an 8-0 decision.
Samsung Group's vice chairman and "de facto leader" Jay Y. Lee and four other executives have denied the charges against them in what is being called South Korea's "trial of the century":
Five executives at Samsung, including the conglomerate's de facto leader, Lee Jae-yong, formally denied bribery charges against them on Thursday, in a preliminary hearing for a trial with the potential to shake South Korea.
Mr. Lee, who also goes by the name Jay Y. Lee, and the other executives face charges that strike at the heart of the deep ties between the South Korean government and powerful family-controlled businesses, a source of growing public resentment. Parliament voted in December to impeach President Park Geun-hye over accusations of corruption and other abuses of power, and she could be formally removed from office soon.
But the related arrest of Mr. Lee, scion of the country's biggest and most profitable conglomerate, or chaebol, is a momentous turn in itself. Chaebol bosses, including Mr. Lee's father, have been convicted in previous corruption cases, but punishments have usually been light or commuted. Many see Mr. Lee's trial as a test of whether South Korea can change by abandoning longstanding deference to the business clans that have dominated the country's glittering economic rise. The chief prosecutor has said it could be the "trial of the century."
Previously: Samsung Vice Chairman a Suspect in South Korean Presidential Bribery Probe
Warrant Sought for the Arrest of Samsung's Vice Chairman
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jay Lee could face 12 years in prison if found guilty on August 25th:
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee fought back tears and denied wrongdoing on Monday as prosecutors sought a 12-year jail term on charges that include bribing the former president to help cement control of the South Korean tech giant.
Lee, the de facto leader of one of Asia's largest conglomerates, has been in detention since February on trial for charges ranging from embezzlement to perjury, in a scandal that gripped the country for months and led to the ouster of former president Park Geun-hye.
He will face the longest prison term on record for a South Korean conglomerate executive if the court finds him guilty when it makes a ruling Aug. 25, two days before Lee's current period of detention ends.
Other charges he faces include wrongfully transferring assets overseas and hiding the proceeds of a crime.
Previously: Warrant Sought for the Arrest of Samsung's Vice Chairman
Samsung Vice Chairman a Suspect in South Korean Presidential Bribery Probe
President Park Geun-hye's Impeachment Upheld as South Korea's "Trial of the Century" Begins
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman and "de facto chief" of Samsung Lee Jae-yong (aka Jay Y. Lee) has been sentenced to five years in prison for bribery, embezzlement, perjury, and other charges:
A South Korean court has found Lee Jae-yong, the de facto chief of the sprawling Samsung business empire, guilty of bribery and other corruption charges. Lee, the billionaire son of Samsung's ailing chairman, was sentenced to five years in prison on Friday, well short of the 12-year sentence prosecutors had sought. The criminal conviction is a blow for Samsung, the world's largest smartphone maker and South Korea's biggest family-run conglomerate whose businesses are estimated to account for around 15% of the country's entire economy.
The so-called "trial of the century" has gripped South Korea for months. It's part of a huge influence-peddling scandal that brought down the government of former President Park Geun-hye. "The public is disappointed that this kind of large-scale crime caused by cozy relations between politics and business still happens -- it's not in the past but remains a reality," Judge Kim Jin-dong said in court. He also laid some of the blame on Park, saying the former president made "aggressive demands" of Samsung.
[...] Samsung Electronics' (SSNLF) shares closed down 1.1% in Seoul following the verdict Friday. But the stock is still not far below the record high it hit last month. And although the guilty verdict is a black mark on Samsung's reputation, analysts said Lee's prison sentence is unlikely to affect the tech giant's day-to-day operations. The company has continued to post strong profits since he was first detained in the case.
Lee is following in the footsteps of many other chiefs of South Korea's big family-run conglomerates, known as chaebol. His father, Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee, was twice sentenced to prison -- and twice pardoned. Serving jail time "is like a rite of passage," David Kang, director of the University of Southern California's Korean Studies Institute, said in an interview before the verdict was announced. "The question will really be how long does he serve."
Lee will appeal the conviction.
Also at Bloomberg (opinion) and NPR (analysis).
Previously: Warrant Sought for the Arrest of Samsung's Vice Chairman
Samsung Vice Chairman a Suspect in South Korean Presidential Bribery Probe
President Park Geun-hye's Impeachment Upheld as South Korea's "Trial of the Century" Begins
Samsung Vice Chairman Ruling Expected on August 25
Lee Jae Yong: Samsung heir gets prison term for bribery scandal
Samsung heir Lee Jae Yong has been sentenced to two years and six months in prison by a high court in South Korea.
The bribery case is a retrial of an earlier one involving the country's former President Park Geun-hye, who was also jailed for bribery and corruption.
Lee has been the de facto head of Samsung Electronics since 2014.
The ruling is likely to have ramifications for the future of his role at the tech giant.
News of the sentence sent Samsung electronics shares more than 4% lower before they began to claw back some ground.
Also at Wccftech.
Previously: Samsung Vice Chairman a Suspect in South Korean Presidential Bribery Probe
Samsung Vice Chairman Arrested For Bribery, Perjury And Embezzlement
President Park Geun-hye's Impeachment Upheld as South Korea's "Trial of the Century" Begins
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Sentenced to Five Years in Corruption Scandal Ruling
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 12 2017, @05:56AM
Lee, the chabol heir, likely won't go to jail. One of the group's senior executive will take the fall. The special prosecutors may be sympathetic to this approach - their ultimate and main target is the prez Park - the crooked imbecile.