SCANDALE WITH REBOUND: INCULAPATION OF THE PATRON OF SAMSUNG SOUTH KOREA

He continues to make heads fall in Seoul. And not least. Samsung group heir Lee Jae-yong was formally charged on Tuesday (February 28th) with charges of bribery, embezzlement, concealment of assets abroad and perjury in the "Choigate" scandal.

Samsung is definitely in the dark after the recent failure of the Galaxy Note 7 explosive batteries ...

A first for South Korea : never a leader of South Korean conglomerate found himself behind bars. Mr. Lee is the Vice President of Samsung Electronics, the flagship of the group, the son of its president and the grandson of its founder.

This is a huge scandal with twists and turns that has shaken South Korea in recent months.

The omnipresent shadow of Choi Soon-Sil hovers over this sordid affair of corruption. A woman, Choi Soon-sil, daughter of the former president's guru and alleged heiress of her "shamanic" powers, reportedly took a very large ancestry on Park Geung-hye until she became her closest confidante. Once Park Geung-hye became president in 2012, Choi Soon, without an official position, follows her to the Blue House. But "Mrs. Choi would have formed a group, 'the eight fairies', bringing together eight women with exclusive access to the president," wrote Le Monde about it.

Choi Soon is therefore suspected of having minted privileged access to the presidency. Thus large industrial groups would have been obliged to pay nearly 70 million dollars (66 million euros) to foundations controlled by the "South Korean Rasputin" president. She was arrested on September 21, 2016.

What do we really blame the vice president of Samsung?

He is accused of having made donations to various organizations related to Choi Soon-Sil, including for example a "horse and money" as an aid to the equestrian career of the daughter of the latter. In all Samsung would have paid a million dollars estimated at 40 million (37 million).

Of course with a counterpart: Lee Jae-Yong's funds would actually have allowed the latter to obtain the support of the government in the restructuring of his company. Thus the controversial merger in 2015 of Samsung C & T and Cheil Industries could have the green light of the government. Fusion deemed "vital" to facilitate the process of succession at the head of the company while Lee Kun-hee, chairman of the group, was in a coma since a heart attack in May 2014.

Indicted with four other leaders, three of whom resigned on Tuesday,

Lee Jae-yong, de facto boss of Samsung after the heart attack of his father in 2014, will most likely be sent to court likely to be sentenced to a very heavy prison sentence. Mr. Lee, however, denies all charges against him.

Lobbying or corruption?

Anyway, the arrest of Lee Jae-yong creates a big void at the head of Samsung.

Other conglomerates could be targeted by the survey:

in the viewfinder of investigators from other groups like Hyundai Motor or the retail giant Lotte.