Tag: Samsung

It seems to me that Samsung is getting off pretty cheap on this issue:

Samsung Electronics plans to deliver an official apology on the long-standing dispute surrounding its former workers suffering from diseases apparently related to the working environments at its factories, the mediation committee said Wednesday.

The apology is part of the agreement reached between one of the world’s leading makers of chips and Supporters for the Health and Rights of People in the Semiconductor Industry (Sharps), a group of victims suffering from various illnesses such as leukemia after working on Samsung’s production lines.

Earlier this month, the mediation committee announced the settlement – which Samsung and victims earlier agreed to accept – which included compensation of up to 150 million won ($132,000) per illness.

The mediation committee said the signing ceremony of the settlement will be held on Nov. 23. In July, Samsung and Sharps agreed to accept any decision made by the mediator to end the issue that has been unsettled for over 10 years.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

Moon has been deputized by Kim to extort Lee to give Kim. Confusing? Put differently: The tyrant has cajoled the president, an elected leader, to coerce his nation's richest man to pay up to the tyrant. https://t.co/Kx3MSYnCOi

— Sung-Yoon Lee (@SungYoonLee1) September 20, 2018

Quasi-hostages, dragooned into the dreaded anti-capitalist dictatorship by their own so-called liberal former human rights lawyer sovereign. Do those billionaires strike you as happy campers? https://t.co/B9oUyyKatg

— Sung-Yoon Lee (@SungYoonLee1) September 19, 2018

Its finally over:

The patent war between the two biggest smartphone rivals has finally ended.

Samsung Electronics and Apple have settled a seven-year legal dispute over each other’s design patents. Neither disclosed the amount of the settlement.

The two giants informed the district court in San Jose, California, “they have agreed to drop and settle their remaining claims and counterclaims in this matter,” according to an order signed by Judge Lucy Koh of the Northern District of California. The settlement means all suits will be dismissed and no further case will be filed on the same claim.

“We can only say that we have settled with Apple and cannot offer any comment,” said a Samsung spokesman.

The dramatic turn of the lengthy legal battle came a month after retrial jurors in the Northern District of California handed Apple $538.6 million in damages for Samsung violating design and utility (technical) patents that included the infamous “rounded corner” patent. Samsung at the time vowed to consider its options including another appeal.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read much more at the link.

A notice apologizing for a massive “fat-finger” dividend payment error at Samsung Securities Co. is posted on the door of the brokerage’s branch in Seoul on April 9, 2018. Last week, the brokerage mistakenly paid employees huge amount of shares in dividends instead of cash dividends. (Yonhap)

Models show off Samsung Electronics Co.’s modular TV, dubbed “The Wall,” at a convention center in Las Vegas on Jan. 7, 2018, two days ahead of the opening of the Consumer Electronics Show. The 146-inch TV, which Samsung says is the first of its kind in the world, uses MicroLED technology to produce its picture. (Yonhap)

I think this conviction means that former President Park will likely get convicted as well for corruption:

A Seoul court sentenced Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong to five years in prison Friday, finding him guilty of bribery, embezzlement and other charges in a massive corruption scandal that led to the ouster of former President Park Geun-hye.

The Seoul Central District Court handed down the verdict, convicting Lee of involvement in Samsung’s provision of 7.2 billion won (US$6.38 million) in bribes for the equestrian training of the daughter of Park’s longtime friend and confidante Choi Soon-sil.

Prosecutors had demanded a 12-year jail term for Lee on charges of offering or pledging 43.3 billion won of bribes to win the government’s blessing for a merger of two Samsung units under terms designed to increase his control over the entire Samsung empire so as to cement a power transfer from his ailing father Lee Kun-hee.

“The crux of this case is close collusion between political and capital powers,” the court said in the verdict. “It appears to be difficult for the people to recover from disappointment in that collusive ties between the president and a large conglomerate existed not in the past, but in the present.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the article says that former President Park made demands to Lee that Samsung give money to Choi Soon-sil so her daughter could receive equestrian training.  Park is an idiot if that is in fact what happened.

Anyway it will be interesting to see how the appeals process works.  I would not be surprised that after this blows over that the appeal quietly happens and Lee receives a suspended sentence and is out of jail.

I don’t think long time Korea watcher are surprised by this kind of media collusion with Samsung:

“Dear respected Mr. Chang Choong-ki! …. I have finally mustered the courage to send you this text message, after hesitating again and again. My son XXX applied to the XXX department of Samsung Electronics…. His application number is 1XXXXXXX, and he graduated from XXX University with a degree in electrical engineering….”

The sender of the text is an anonymous journalist from CBS, a major Christian broadcaster in South Korea. He is essentially asking one of the most powerful men in Samsung Group to help his son get a job.

“I am always grateful to you,” the journalist wrote.

Chang Choong-ki is the former vice head of Samsung Group’s now-defunct Future Strategy Office, a central but opaque organ in the Samsung machine that sponsored media, dealt with government relations, and oversaw key business decisions across the conglomerate’s 70+ affiliates. Chang is also one of the key figures in the country’s biggest political scandal in recent memory, the so-called “Park Geun-hye/Choi Soon-sil Gate.”

The CBS journalist’s text message is one of many recovered from Chang Choong-ki’s phone by SisaIN, a South Korean magazine. This week, SisaIN released an exclusive by Joo Jin-woo, an investigative reporter well-known for tackling sensitive topics (even taboo, in some outlets) like Samsung and heads of state.

According to Joo, Chang had corresponded with a wide network of authorities in different sectors: officials in the presidential Blue House, the National Intelligence Service (South Korea’s spy agency), prosecutors, journalists, and more.

In one text, Im Chae-jin, a former head of South Korea’s Prosecution Service, mentioned his son-in-law, an employee at a Samsung factory in Suwon: “Can you help my [son-in-law] XXX be dispatched to India?” Im emphasized that his daughter also wanted the transfer.

In another, an anonymous journalist from major daily Munhwa Ilbo asked Chang to increase the amount of sponsorship for the newspaper. “We’ll reward you with good articles,” the anonymous reporter wrote.  [Korea Expose]

I recommend reading the whole thing at the link, but media collusion with not only industry, but political parties is something that is not only a problem in South Korea, but as the last election cycle showed, in the United States as well.

It looks like everything turned out alright for Lee Boo-jin’s divorce.  Her ex-husband was trying to get a billion dollars out of her and instead the court orders her to pay him $7.6 million.  She probably has that amount of money lying under her mattress:

The Seoul Family Court granted a divorce Thursday to Hotel Shilla CEO Lee Boo-jin and Im Woo-jae, former adviser of Samsung Electro-Mechanics, ordering Lee to pay Im 8.6 billion won ($7.6 million) as part of the division of their assets.

The court gave Lee, the eldest daughter of bedridden Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee, custody of the couple’s 10 year-old son.

The Thursday ruling is a setback for Im, whose 15-year-old marriage with Lee unraveled in 2014 when Lee sued for divorce. He had asked for 1.2 trillion won in dividing their assets.

The couple was represented at the court’s ruling by their lawyers. Under the ruling, Im will have visitation rights with his son only once a month between 11 a.m. on a Saturday and 4 p.m. the following day.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

This appears to be the testimony that prosecutors have been spending all these months trying to get out of Chung Yoo-ra:

Chung made a bombshell revelation on Wednesday on the details of Samsung’s support for her training. Samsung provided her three expensive horses, Salcido, Vitana V and Rausing 1233 in 2015 and 2016. Choi swapped Salcido and Vitana V with Vladimir and Stasha in September, as the first media reports about the scandal began. The independent counsel argued that the trade of the horses was intended to cover up Samsung’s tie to Choi.

Chung testified that Samsung must have known about her mother’s trading of the horses. “I telephoned my equestrian coach, Christian Kamplade, in June and asked him about it,” she said. “He told me that my mother, [former Samsung Electronics president] Park Sang-jin and [former executive director] Hwang Sung-soo met in Copenhagen, Denmark, the day before trading the horses.”

She also said she has an audio recording of the conservation and that a broker for the deal also complained to her in English, “Samsung needs to pay me,” referring to delayed payments.

After the independent counsel discussed Samsung’s claim that Choi unilaterally made a decision to trade the horses without the company’s knowledge or approval, Chung said, “My mother told me that Samsung ordered to change the horses. It makes no sense that they were not aware of it.”

She added, “My mother told me that things will get noisy if word gets out Samsung is supporting just me before other athletes join the program.”

Lawyers representing Lee said Chung was only 18 years old when the deals were signed and she was not involved in the negotiations. Chung probably gave a testimony wanted by the independent counsel in order to avoid another warrant hearing, the lawyers said. The prosecution made two attempts to detain Chung, but both requests were rejected by a local court.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

Really nothing new here because it has long been known that Samsung was sponsoring her equestrian training in return for influence from her mother.  Chung has just confirmed what was already known.