The chief prosecutor and anticorruption agent from President Roh Moo Hyun’s cabinet were recently accused of accepting bribes from Samsung. Former chief lawyer of Samsung, Kim Yong Chul brought this news to the table when he admitted to bribing prosecutors on behalf on the Samsung companies.”The root cause of bribery is twofold,” said Assistant Professor of Business Management Deena Burris. “In some cases, low salaries in many types of jobs have made the acceptance of bribes a tolerated action. In other cases, political power and lack of legal repercussions have made bribery a common practice.”
In South Korea, Burris’ latter example has made headlines. On Nov. 11, South Korean President’s Roh Moo Hyun’s chief prosecutor and top anticorruption agent were accused of accepting bribes from Samsung, an electronics company known for its phones, computer chips, and flat screen televisions.
Kim Yong Chul, the former chief lawyer for Samsung, brought these accusations to the table when he admitted to personally bribing prosecutors on behalf of Samsung. According to Kim, Samsung has hidden a bribery list in downtown Seoul. Executives on behalf of the company were allegedly instructed to bribe the prosecutors with whom they have personal connections.
Kim decided to reveal this information due to his disgust at the hypocrisy of both Samsung and his government. He also pressed how important this issue is, citing the amount political influence that the company has.
“Prosecutors were only a small group that Samsung was managing,” said Kim to the Herald Tribune. “It was on a much larger scale with the Ministry of Finance and the National Tax Service”
According to the New York Times, a number of Catholic priests, who spoke on behalf of Kim, challenged three powerful members of Hyun’s cabinet for accepting these bribes. They accused Lim Chae Jin, the new prosecutor general, Lee Jong Baek, head of the Korea Independent Commission against Corruption, and Lee Gui Nam, the director of Central Investigations Bureau, a group that exists to investigate corruption allegations against politicians, government, and big business.
Samsung and the three government officials denied these accusations and demanded that evidence be revealed. Lim Chae Jin spoke directly to the Herald Tribune.
“I have never received any cash benefits or requests in favor of Samsung,” Lim said.
This Samsung case isn’t the first time that a business has been accused of bribery in Korea. South Korean conglomerates have a history of accusations against them for evading tax laws and transferring wealth to their heirs through bribery. A number of social critics view this history as a culture of corruption embedded in South Korea.
Burris, having lived in Korea, would disagree with this statement.
“The acceptance or payment of bribes may happen there, most often between a corporation and a government official, because that is how business is expedited,” Burris said. “There are many other countries, such as Indonesia and several Sub-Saharan African countries, where bribes are much more commonplace in the normal course of business.”
No matter where it happens, bribery is a significant problem in many countries, in both the political and corporate arenas.
The South Korean Presidential elections are to be held on Dec. 19, and, according to Kim, the Samsung scandal may cost Hyun both his title as president, and his reputation as a leader. In his final statement to the Herald Tribune, Kim predicted the continuation of corruption even with a new president.
Kim said, “I don’t think this chain of corruption will ever be broken until South Korean companies improve transparency in their corporate governance.