This week, a former Samsung senior manager, who was responsible for legal affairs in the group’s “Restructuring Headquarters” came foward with allegations that the company created several accounts in his name and deposited 5 billion Won (about US$5 million) in those accounts.
One might think that the money may be his compensation for his work in Samsung. However, the guy is claiming that the accounts were created without his knowledge and that the money was a slush fund intended to bribe politicians, prosecutors, judges, senior government officials, media personalities, etc.
Of course, Samsung is denying the allegations.
A Catholic group has caught on to this and is pushing for the prosecutors to investigate the case. The prosecution has hinted at an investigation, however no specific moves have been made in that direction. But considering that there is a possibility that the Catholic group in question has a list of prosecutors that received bribes from Samsung, one wonders whether an investigation would be launched.
Chaebols creating slush funds and bribing people isn’t new, but what makes this case unique is that a former insider has come foward with the allegations, something that is rare in this society. He also has quite a history according to the Chosun;
He started work at the Incheon District Prosecutors Office in 1989, and did stints as a Special Investigator in Seoul and Pusan. He investigated former Pres. Chun and Roh during the Kim Young Sam administration and was responsible for finding a 6.1 billion KRW slush fund that the Ssangyong Hon. Chairman created for then Pres. Chun.
After retiring, he worked at Samsung from 1997 to 2004, first as a finance executive and a legal affairs manager in the Restructuring Headquarters. He was responsible for taking care of the NIS X-File and the Everland cases.
He is believed to have resigned after falling out with the upper management during the investigation of the alleged use of slush funds during the 2003 Presidential elections.
It’ll be interesting to see whether this blows up into a full-scale scandal or dies a slow but quiet death.
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‘Prosecutor-General Chung Sang-myung said he wanted to look at the list it if it exists and will launch an investigation if it is proved reliable.’ (from the Korea Times)
Well, I suppose the prosecutor-general could compare this list to one kept by the prosecutors, in order to determine if the information is ‘reliable’ enough to merit an investigation.
Am I missing something here? How can he determine the reliability of information before having investigated into it?
I’m still waiting for a follow-up on the allegations made against 이학수. I guess they’ll get this latest one after they get around to that one.
whether this blows up into a big one might depend on the media. samsung has its tentacles around everything and everyone. the media response was instructive. while the hani ran huge coverage, the biz dailies ran NOTHING. and the main dailies ran NEXT TO NOTHING.
biz as usual.
Samsung is notorious for heavy-handed media manipulation, just like “mjw” mentioned. It will take some unique circumstances for this to become a meaningful investigation, thus it needs an un -corrupted entity to push for it.
Samsung is still a better chaebol than most others, if not the best.
More tales from the trenches: Some years ago, I knew the VP of PR for SDS (different guy now). It took several meetings for me to finally get a straight explanation of what he and his 20-strong team did, but this was it: Around 6 pm, when the “first editions” of the newspapers were sent out to the big biz groups, his staff scanned the papers. If there was nothing bad about Samsung, they packed up and went home. If there was something bad, then everyone settled in for an evening of lobbying. Sometimes it was just a matter of a series of phone calls to the paper’s editor or even the article’s author. Sometimes it took hours, and required ever higher levels of execs to phone counterparty execs, and sometimes the Samsung people had to suit up, head out, and either confront and cajole them in the paper’s offices, or else invite them out for an evening of booze-soaked attitude adjustment.
My VP friend even got random phone calls sometimes, from reporters sitting in room salons, asking him to come and join them (which meant, he said, to come and pay their bill).
Thusly can the ‘heavy hand’ be replaced by the ’soft stroke’.
A while back, a ROKAF F-15K crashed off the coast of Pohang during a training exercise. The Korean media all mentioned the possibility of engine failure, and even stressed that the engines were American made.
Of course none of them mentioned that the engines were assembled by none other than Samsung Techwin as part of the offset agreement. Wonder how much “lobbying” it took to convince the Korean media to forget that piece of fact.
mins, I believe that was a kf-16 that (crashed a little after the f-15k that took down the two crew members) that was blamed for the fault American engine. The F-15 was wholly built in the US, whereas the kf-16 was built under license here with exception to the engine. I remember yelling at the tv “well who the hell maintained it?” after they spent half the segment talking about the origin of the engines… lo-and-behold an investigation weeks later turned up rampant neglect in aircraft maintenance and grounded the whole kf-16 fleet.
http://www.f-16.net/news_article2179.html
#7.
Yes, the F-15K is wholly built in the US, but because of a 30% offset agreement, Korean companies produce components for the fighter. And as part of the package, Samsung Techwin assembles the engines. Check out the links below;
http://www.ausairpower.net/DT-Region-01-06.pdf
http://home.att.net/~jbaugher1/f15_27.html
http://www.flug-revue.rotor.co.....RF-15K.htm
Also, a link to a news story which says that if the engines were at fault, then a Korean company will have to compensate the ROKAF. The name of the American companies are mentioned but the name of the Korean company is not mentioned. The article also makes it sound like that the reporter just “discovered” the fact that a Korean company was involved in the manufacture of the engines.
http://news.naver.com/tv/read......enu_id=115
The F-15K went down due to pilot error. It had nothing to do with engines. The KF-16 went down because ROKAF was too lazy to do an engine service order previously released by Pratt & Whitney.
Yes, the F-15K did go down because of pilot error. However before the ROKAF announced the results of their investigation, speculation of engine trouble did go around, courtesy of the Korean media.
Should have mentioned that in my previous comment.
See how powerful Samsung is? They’ve even gotten this thread off track — everybody has forgotten about the slush fund.
AF mechanics complained that the money earmarked for repair and maintenance was taken by AF brass to boost Morale and Welfare.
Party money.
This is what happens when Koreans are not preparing for war. They do not think NK will ever attack. FUs like Kim DaeJung and Rho MuHyen made people to think this way.
Dangerous consequences. People will die.
Even military is losing the will to fight. Using Maintenance money to party.
I alway wonder what percentage of Korean Fighters are in good condition to fly when a war breaks out tomorrow.
I guess it to be 30% or less.
Naturally, the Joongang Ilbo has nothing whatsoever about this, anywhere, whereas the Chosun Ilbo has this about the Catholic Priests’ Association for Justice and their tell-all revelation that is to happen on Monday.
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