Samsung has been battling several court cases in recent times. The latest is the conviction of the company’s board chairman, Lee Sang-hoon by a Seoul court for violating South Korean labour union laws. The court also sentenced him to 18 months in jail.
Before becoming board chairman two years ago, Lee Sang-hoon is said to have served as Samsung’s chief financial officer and it was during that period that the offence was committed.
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The investigation into the case for which Lee has just been convicted dates back to 2013 when company documents describing methods for combating employee unionization efforts were leaked. It was the beginning of a years-long set of interconnected cases that would eventually lead to indictments and jail time for dozens of executives there. However, the case against Lee Sang-hoon was eventually dropped for lack of evidence.
In a twist of fate, the case was reopened last year when investigators accidentally stumbled on additional evidence during a raid on the company for a separate investigation. Conclusive evidence was unearthed showing that Lee conspired with others at Samsung to crush unions and unionizing efforts there, in violation of South Korea’s labour laws.
This surely won’t be last we’ll be hearing about this matter as Lee still has the option of filing an appeal against the ruling.
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(source)
