Lee Jae-yong Trial Panel "Samsung Compliance Committee to Conduct Expert Review"... Multiple Additional Hearings Expected

Court Proposes Former Constitutional Court Justice Kang Il-won, Chief Judge of Park Geun-hye Impeachment Trial, as Expert Psychological Commissioner

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] On the 17th, the retrial panel for Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong's bribery and embezzlement case announced that it will conduct expert hearings to assess the effectiveness of the newly established Compliance Committee within the Samsung Group. This can be seen as an 'assignment review' of the 'assignment' submitted by Vice Chairman Lee. Accordingly, the retrial hearings for Lee are expected to be held several more times.

The Seoul High Court Criminal Division 1 (Presiding Judges Jung Jun-young, Kim Se-jong, Song Young-seung) decided to involve three expert hearing members to evaluate the effectiveness of the Compliance Committee established by Samsung Group during the 4th retrial hearing of Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong's bribery and embezzlement case, held at 2:05 p.m. that day.

At a previous hearing, the court had requested Lee's defense team to "prepare and present measures to prevent recurrence on how a company should respond if it receives the same (bribery) demands from political powers in the future." The Seoul High Court Criminal Division 1 recently gained attention for incorporating so-called 'therapeutic justice' in criminal trials, which goes beyond mere judgments of guilt or innocence and punishment to include prevention of recurrence and healing roles.

In response, Samsung established the Compliance Committee (Chairman Kim Ji-hyung, former Supreme Court Justice and current lawyer at the law firm Jipyung). According to former Justice Kim and Lee's defense team, the Compliance Committee plans to pre-monitor potential legal violation risks among major resolutions and deliberations of Samsung affiliates' boards and management committees. Upon detection, it will conduct investigations and reporting procedures to demand corrective and punitive actions. The committee also aims to develop measures to prevent recurrence of illegal factors. Compliance monitoring activities will be conducted without exception for Samsung and its executives. During the hearing, Lee's defense attorneys explained the establishment, authority, and future activity plans of the Compliance Committee to the court.

After the defense's explanation, the court expressed the opinion that it must verify whether the Compliance Committee can be operated effectively. The court stated, "Such a system (Compliance Committee) can only be considered as a sentencing factor if it is substantively operated," and added, "It is necessary to strictly and thoroughly monitor whether the promises made by Lee and Samsung during the trial process are properly implemented." The court further said, "We will conduct the review through expert hearing members under the Criminal Procedure Act," and "Considering the gravity of the matter, we have formed an expert panel of three members."

The court proposed former Constitutional Court Justice Kang Il-won as one of the expert hearing members from the court side and announced that it would receive opinions from Lee's defense and the special prosecution by the end of this month regarding the appointment of former Justice Kang and recommendations for the other two expert hearing members. Former Justice Kang served as the presiding judge in the impeachment trial of former President Park Geun-hye.

As the court has announced expert hearings on the Compliance Committee, the retrial hearings are expected to be held several more times. The court stated that the next hearing scheduled for the 14th of next month will not be the 5th trial session but will be a preparatory hearing to discuss the composition of the expert panel and the areas the experts need to review.

On the other hand, the special prosecution immediately opposed the plan, arguing that discussing only the effectiveness of the Compliance Committee without addressing reforms of the chaebol system is inappropriate. The special prosecution stated, "We do not understand what impact the establishment of the (Compliance) system has in a case involving the president and the top chaebol leader," and expressed serious concerns about whether a system from the U.S., which lacks massive organizations like Samsung, would be effective in Korea. They further pointed out, "Three of the four charges in this case are bribery and embezzlement, so we need to see which sentencing factors the Compliance Committee corresponds to and thoroughly examine other factors as well." The special prosecution also said, "A Compliance Committee without chaebol reform is merely leniency," and "It is unacceptable to discuss only the Compliance Committee while chaebol reform disappears somewhere."