Enlarge / Jay Y. Lee leaves court following the bribery scandal verdict in August 2017. (credit: Seung-il Ryu/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Samsung Electronics officially has a new executive chairman. The heir to the Samsung empire, Lee Jae-yong (aka Jay Y. Lee), ascended to the throne of the world's biggest chipmaker on Thursday. Samsung announced the move alongside its Q3 2022 earnings report, which it probably hopes will distract from the 23 percent drop in profits compared to the previous quarter.
Lee has been the de-facto leader of Samsung for several years now, so his appointment is mostly a formality. The former Samsung chairman and Lee's father, Lee Kun-hee, died in 2020, but before that he was incapacitated for years following a 2014 heart attack. Lee's ascension to chairman has always been expected, but it has been delayed due to Lee's numerous legal issues.
If you ever want a wild reading topic, look up "Choi-gate," a South Korean political scandal involving bribes paid to Choi Soon-sil, a "shamanistic cult member," who had Rasputin-like influence over South Korea's then-president, Park Geun-hye. Lee's role in the scandal involved bribing Choi to convince President Park to approve a merger of two Samsung Group affiliates. Lee was originally sentenced to five years in jail, while Park was impeached and removed from office. (Samsung's ruling family is so full of drama that NBC once considered basing a TV drama series on them. You can see why!)
Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments