Jae-yong Lee, arrested again… Samsung Semiconductor Super Gap Red Light

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong heads to court with a firm expression [사진=연합뉴스]

Jaeyong Lee Samsung Electronics(84,500 -0.59%) As the vice-chairman (pictured) was sentenced to two years and six months in prison at a repatriation trial for the destruction of’Gukjeong Nongdan’ on the 18th, and was imprisoned in court, an atmosphere of shock is detected inside Samsung.

Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, jailed again after 1078 days

Interest in Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong [사진=연합뉴스]

On the afternoon of the afternoon of the 18th, vice-chairman Lee Jae-yong was sentenced to two years and six months in prison on the day of the court of repatriation of vice chairman Lee Jae-yong for charges of bribery and other charges. This is exactly 1078 days after being released after being sentenced to probation by the Court of Appeal on February 5, 2018.

Vice-Chairman Lee Jae-yong was first arrested on February 17, 2017 on charges of bribing former President Park Geun-hye and Choi Seo-won (previously renamed Choi Soon-sil) for help with the succession of the Samsung Group’s management rights.

Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong’s arrest warrant, which was filed in January 2017 by the special prosecution team in charge of the investigation, was dismissed once, but the special prosecution requested a warrant again, and vice-chairman Lee Jae-yong became the first arrested officer since the founding of Samsung. At the time, the court revealed the reason for the issuance of the warrant, saying, “The reason for the arrest and necessity is recognized when combining the facts of the newly constructed crime and additional evidence collected.”

The first trial court sentenced him to five years in prison. Choi Seo-won’s daughter, Jeong Yu-ra, admitted 8.9 billion won in horseback riding support and 1.6 billion won sponsored by the Korea Winter Sports Gifted Center as bribes.

However, the court of appeals admitted that only 3.6 billion won was a bribe, commuting the sentence to two years and six months in prison and four years probation. Accordingly, Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong was released on February 5, 2018 after 354 days of imprisonment.

On the day of release, Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong said at the Seoul Detention Center, “The past year has been a really precious time to look back on me” and “I will look more closely in the future.” “I have to go see Chairman Lee Kun-hee,” he added.

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong’s sentence of repatriation to the Kukjeong Nongdan case was announced on the morning of the 18th, the morning of Samsung Electronics’ Seocho office building. [사진=연합뉴스]

Samsung officials who watched the trial inside and outside the Seoul Court were said to be in shock as soon as they heard the sentence result.

It is unlikely that there will be any major changes in the general management plan, such as investments or hiring, which have been prepared. However, some analyzes say that work that requires a decision of the total number of people, such as large-scale mergers and acquisitions (M&A) involving several trillion won of funds or business restructuring, is likely to be temporarily stopped.

Inside and outside the business world, while the corona 19 (new coronavirus infection) situation is still serious, the head of Samsung, the number one conglomerate in Korea, is watching the situation where the head of the country’s leading conglomerate is’reconstrained’ for the first time in history.

Above all, it is evaluated that it is difficult for Samsung Electronics, which is the number one market capitalization in Korea and one of Samsung’s largest core affiliates, to overcome the severe crisis that is currently facing only by Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong’s in-house management.

In addition to the world’s No. 1 memory field in the semiconductor market, it is pointed out that the red light has turned on to achieve the’Semiconductor Vision’ that will achieve No. 1 in the system semiconductor area by 2030.

In addition, in the smartphone market, while Huawei of China, the world’s second-largest company, is staggering in the aftermath of the US-China trade dispute, it is predicted that there will be a limit to Samsung’s’super-gap’ strategy that will surely outrun its competitors.

The most urgent is the concern that vice chairman Lee Jae-yong’s long-established global network and Samsung’s external credibility based on this may sharply decline.

The fact that the owner of Samsung, which is ranked No. 1 in the world in the market of various innovative products such as mobile home appliances, semiconductor displays, and has been redeemed for bribery charges, is expected to be a fatal blow to the deterioration of external reputation.

Reporter Kang Kyung-joo [email protected]