I guess that green card really does mean a lot:
A 43-year-old American resident earned hundreds of millions of won by selling luxury “Swiss” watches to celebrities and the wealthy at lavish parties, although the timepieces were made in Korea with some parts from China, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said yesterday.
Lee Dong-jin, who also goes by Phillip Lee, was detained by police. Another man, 41, who manufactured and supplied the watches, is being investigated, police said.
To be fair to the JoongAng Ilbo’s English edition, at least they printed the guy’s full name (the Korean edition didn’t), which at least would seem to indicate the practice isn’t racially determined.
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A green card doesn’t a US citizen make… A passport does.
Yeah, funny how that nationality thing works in the papers here, isn’t it?
Lesson: that’s what authorised dealers are for. If you’d like a distinctive watch of high quality manufacture and design, there are several AD’s in Seoul which you could try. One I’d recommend is ‘Big Ben’ in Cheongdam-Dong (across the street from Galleria East) - they’ve got some beautiful watches, and the shop’s owner is one of the friendliest you’ll find in the business. If you love watches, it’s a great place to visit.
“A 43-year-old KOREAN American residing in KOREA…” Damn, that wasn’t too difficult.
“Mr. Lee opened an office and a store in Seoul in May of 2005, under the corporation and trademark Vincent & Co., police said.” See, it’s easy for Americans to open a business in Korea–you just have to be, uh, Korean.
Actually, he’s not American at all — he’s a Korean with a green card. Funny how that makes him an “American resident.” He’s less American than Hines Ward is Korean.
The Chosun Ilbo also called him an American resident. I suspect he’s an American citizen. As for his ethnicity (Korean-American), that doesn’t seem relevant in any way.
It isn’t relevant to this story that the guy is American or Martian–it’s the double standard of Korean media that Mr. Marmot is pointing out, when “Korean Koreans” who break that law are “only identified by the family name Kim” or whatever.
Actually, the term used in the JoongAng Ilbo’s Korean edition indicated he was NOT a U.S. citizen, but rather a permanent resident (with Korean citizenship). Whether the term was properly applied in this case is a different matter. And of course his ethnicity wasn’t relevant—he did something bad. In which case, he’s “American.” Even in the Korean version, the first thing they said about Mr. Lee was that he held a green card. At any rate, if he’d won the Masters, his ethnicity would have been quite relevant
Michael: Actually, I was kinda impressed that the English edition actually named Mr. Lee because he was a Korean-Korean. It’s also interesting that the Korean edition of the paper did not (nor did it when it ran the story on Mr. C, if I recall).
I’ll take a leap and coin the term:
“The Michelle Wie Effect”
Well, they did name Lee, and implied he was an “American” resident of Korea, so the JoongAng Ilbo’s editors were sloppy on that one.
On a related note, Prez Roh said early on that in his government no officials would speak on condition of anonymity to journalists–that policy lasted about as long as a Seoul police crackdown on prostitution.
I remember Michelle Wie’s father assuring the Korean public a few months ago that there was nothing American about her except her passport!
Someone please fill me in. What is the controversy? What is the “rule”?
H&T, to answer your question: there isn’t really much of a controversy. This topic just has some folks wound too tightly.
BTW, in horology, think ‘regulation’, not ‘rule’.
I’m more offended by the fact that the paper called the watches “Swiss” even though they were made in Korea.
Well, it was Mistah Lee who called them Swiss. The article just quotes “Swiss”… For once we shouldn’t be angry with the messenger
There’s one very amusing angle to this story. Isn’t one of the things that the hoity-toity set in Korea do to set themselves apart from the riffraff is by making a point of buying real-deal, brand-name 명품, rather than cheap ripoffs or downright imitations? There’s a certain delicious irony that even the snobs in Gangnam got taken in by this cad.
Someone ought to tell the hoity-toity set about Itaewon. Every store a treasure trove of imitations. And the place has the government’s dojang of approval.
Heck, you hardly need to swing a cat* to find places selling imitation Louis Vuitton wallets. My point was that the “beautiful people” make a point of steering clear of places like that, so they can go out and buy the real thing and flaunt their wealth.
*No animals were harmed in the writing of this comment.
Sewing,
You’re quite right regarding the purchasing decisions made by some rich folks. Through my wife, I’ve learned a bit about these people. You can be sure that those taken in by this con were, as the papers note, almost exclusively the children of those who created wealth, rather than the wealth-creators themselves.
There is a great distinction between the two: while the creators of wealth have little need to impress others with trendy items, their offspring have a much greater need. Since the ‘chaebol kids’ are often not able to impress others by their accomplishments, they try to do so by showing that they are savvy to current trends, and knowledgable about quality. Obviously, as this example provides, that is not always the case.
To be sure, the really rich purchase their share of luxury items, but you will not see them at the DFS. They shop during the week at the luxury-brand shops, and even in department stores on occasion. They often dress down - little makeup, non-stylish clothes. Nice clothes, makeup and/or jewelry are worn elsewhere.
When they shop, they buy things of true quality and beautiful design. They will buy items that are extremely expensive, but will also buy small, inexpensive ones - the key is how the item strikes them. They have little need for the validation of others, so while they are interested in the advice of sales staff, they do not need their flattery, or seek their approval.
Their children, however, are a little different. They follow the same shopping pattern generally, and will sometimes even shop with their parents. The difference, however, is that they are sometimes concerned with how others will perceive their purchases, in a way that their parents never are. Some want(as many less well-heeled consumers also do) to be assured that their choices are ‘wise’ or ’savvy’, and demonstrating of having good taste. They very rarely buy inexpensive items, regardless of how well-made or well-designed they may be. That, so they think, demonstrates good judgement on their part.
Same goes for wine. Rich people in Korea will go – if and when they drink some – go for the price sticker and the “brand”. Which is why wines like Ch. Talbot, which invested heavily on marketing [not something French vintners do, usually], are sold everywhere, with a markup way over the average.
The Joongang Daily today printed a correction stating that the individual should not have been identified as an American.