{"id":9502,"date":"2017-03-09T06:22:23","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T06:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/samsung-chief-lee-jae-yong-on-trial-for-bribery\/"},"modified":"2017-03-09T06:22:23","modified_gmt":"2017-03-09T06:22:23","slug":"samsung-chief-lee-jae-yong-on-trial-for-bribery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/samsung-chief-lee-jae-yong-on-trial-for-bribery\/","title":{"rendered":"Samsung chief Lee Jae-Yong on trial for bribery"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>                                  <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Lee Jae-yong\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/173B1\/production\/_93535159_037227209.jpg\"\/>Image copyright                  Getty Images                                                    <\/figure>\n<p class=\"caps\">Samsung&#039;s de facto head Lee Jae-Yong has gone on trial in South Korea on charges of bribery.<\/p>\n<p>The case is linked to a massive scandal that led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Lee is accused of giving donations to non-profit foundations operated by Choi Soon-sil, a friend of Ms Park, in exchange for government favours.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Lee, the Samsung group and four other Samsung executives who are also on trial all deny wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Lee did not appear in person on the opening day of the trial in the capital, Seoul, <\/p>\n<p>The trial is expected to go on for several months. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Samsung scandal: Who is Lee Jae-yong?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The tragedy of South Korea&#039;s Park Geun-hye<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Korea&#039;s presidential scandal explained<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Mr Lee, also known as Jay Y Lee, is currently vice-chairman of Samsung Electronics. But since his father, Lee Kun-hee, suffered a heart attack in 2014, he is considered de facto boss of the entire Samsung Group conglomerate.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors have accused Mr Lee of giving donations worth 41bn won ($36m;\u00a329m) to organisations linked to Ms Park&#039;s close friend Ms Choi. They alleged this was done to win government support for a big restructuring of Samsung that would help a smooth leadership transition in favour of Mr Lee, who is standing in as chairman for his ill father.<\/p>\n<p>The controversial merger required support from the national pension fund - the allegation is that this support was granted in return for the donations.<\/p>\n<p>In a December parliamentary hearing, Samsung admitted giving a total of 20.4bn won to two foundations, but denied seeking favours in return.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Lee also confirmed the firm gave a horse and money to help the equestrian career of Ms Choi&#039;s daughter, Chung Yoo-ra, something he said he now regrets.<\/p>\n<h2>                   Lee Jae-yong                <\/h2>\n<h3>                       Samsung&#039;s heir apparent                    <\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>  - Grandson of Samsung founder  Lee Byung-chul, son of current chairman Lee Kun-hee. <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>  - Also known as Jay Y Lee, the 48-year-old has spent his entire career in the company.  <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>  - Is vice chairman of Samsung Electronics and was nominated to join the firm&#039;s board in October 2016.  <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>  - Despite his arrest, still widely expected to take overall control of Samsung.  <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>  - Critics say his rise through Samsung has been due to his birth, not his business experience.  <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>                                       Getty Images                 <\/p>\n<p>Ms Park&#039;s position began to unravel in October last year when details of her friendship with Ms Choi emerged. <\/p>\n<p>They included revelations that the president had allowed her old friend - who holds no government role - to edit political speeches. <\/p>\n<p>Politicians voted in December last year to impeach her over the scandal. South Korea&#039;s constitutional court is expected to rule shortly on whether that decision will be upheld. <\/p>\n<p>Until then, Ms Park remains formally president but stripped of her powers.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Choi is on trial for charges including corruption and coercion.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Park denies wrongdoing but has apologised for the way she managed her relationship with Ms Choi, who also denies committing criminal offences.<\/p>\n<p><a rel='nofollow' href=http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-39214545 target=\"_blank\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright Getty Images Samsung&#039;s de facto head Lee Jae-Yong has gone on trial in South Korea on charges of bribery. The case is linked to a massive scandal that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}