Nov 05
Former Legal Executive Accuses Samsung Group of Massive Bribery
Seoul, Korea — Nov 05, ‘07 — A former Samsung Group legal executive went on live television on Monday to accuse South Korea’s biggest conglomerate of operating huge slush funds to bribe prosecutors and officials.
Samsung Group then issued a 25-page rebuttal rejecting all the accusations made by Kim Yong-cheol, former head of a key legal division of Samsung Group.
“Everything Attorney Kim has said is untrue,” Samsung quoted a high-ranking official as saying.
At his news conference, Kim said he wanted to blow the whistle on corruption and reveal a list of Samsung executives he said operated secret slush funds. He did not produce the list.
Kim charged the company with paying off politicians, members of the judiciary and bureaucrats in order to avoid legal scrutiny of affairs involving company management under chairman Lee Kun-hee and the transfer of his wealth to his children.
“Prosecutors were only a small group that Samsung was managing,” Kim said. “It was on a much larger scale with the Ministry of Finance and the National Tax Service.” Kim made his nationally televised comments in a packed Seoul church, where he said he was being supported by priests. More at Reuters.