Late last week, the vice chairman of South Korean corporate giant Samsung was found guilty of bribery, embezzlement and perjury and jailed for five years. Lee Jae-Yong is the second member of the founding family to be nailed. His father, Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee, was found guilty of tax evasion in 2008. In South Korea, they didn’t come mightier than the Lee family of Samsung.
Lee bribed a confidante of the former head of state, Park Geun-hye. So the verdict doesn’t look good for the former president who was impeached in March. She is also on trial for corruption. South Korea’s crackdown mirrors what has happened in Brazil where former president Dilma Rousseff was impeached and dozens of businessmen and politicians are serving time with more being charged, including two ex-presidents.
Thanks to the Guptas, South Africa has open and shut cases of bribery and corruption. The South Korean and Brazilian examples shows that the bigger they are the harder they fall. And that there is nothing more powerful than the truth. Hope springs.
