Bixby, why is Samsung's heir apparent facing 12 years in the slammer?

Re: Off Topic

There is a whole field of game theory about optimising the number of guards if you are a less-than-totally democratic leader. Too few and the other guys can get you, too many and the chance of being offed by one of your own bodyguards increases.

Re: Off Topic

Who told him it was safe? The secret service?

He and his chief bodyguard were shot dead by the head of the Korean CIA, who in turn was captured and later hanged by the Army. Draw your own conclusions.

Re: Off Topic

Who told him it was safe? The secret service?

"Yes boss, that metal chair suspended over the tankful of hungry piranas is perfectly safe. Honest!"

Re: No, you didn't tell us

It is a live court case, thus publications must be very careful not to be prejudicial.

The legal consequences for affecting an ongoing trial are significant.

Re: No, you didn't tell us

"This really didn't explain the alleged the link between Lee and the corrupt regime."

There really wan't much of a link between Samsung and the corrupt regime. Or, more accurately, there was no more of a link than with the vast majority of Korean businesses. The problem is that El Reg, along with most of the media, have been strangely reluctant to actually talk about the sheer insanity of the whole case, for some reason preferring to paint it as just another run-of-the-mill case of corporate corruption. Some of the basics can be found at these links, with plenty of other related posts on the same site - http://askakorean.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/the-irrational-downfall-of-park-geun-hye.html

http://askakorean.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/the-ultimate-choi-soon-sil-gate.html

To give a basic summary, Park Geun-hye, the now ex-president, had essentially been in thrall to the leader of a shamanistic sex cult, Choi Tae-min, who claimed to be able to talk to her dead mother, and the relationship between the two was even cited as one of the reasons her father was assassinated. Tae-min used the relationship to make an awful lot of money for himself and his children. Choi Soon-sil his daughter, who essentially took over the relationship after Tae-min's death. Once Park actually became president, Choi had almost complete control over pretty much everything - she appears to have not just had full access to presidential briefings and influence on policy, but pretty much controlled Korean government policy through Park as a puppet. There were all kinds of bizarre goings-on involving shamanistic rituals, sex and drugs (yes, seriously). The scandal finally broke when questions started being asked about favours granted to Choi's own daughter, but that was simply a continuing part of the same corruption and extortion that had been going on since the '70s. As noted in the first link above, Koreans pretty much expect some corruption in politics and industry, as does everyone else really. The big deal with this mess is that it wasn't simple corruption, but rather that the president was apparently utterly irrational and not simply trying to benefit herself but instead doing whatever some cult leader told her to.

When it comes to Samsung, they were simply one of a great many companies who were extorted from. The only real difference is that they basically just went along with it openly and paid bribes when asked rather than waiting to be threatened with being destroyed first. That's not to say those involved didn't break the law and deserve to face justice, but given the scale of the corruption and length of time it's been going, Samsung's role in it just isn't a particularly big deal. And given how utterly insane the whole thing actually is, it's really quite sad that the media has focused almost exclusively on a few bribes; for once we have a story truly deserving of all the clickbait headlines you could come up with, but for some reason no-one seems to have bothered. The government of a major country has been run, and subsequently brought down, by a family-run sex cult masquerading as psychics to control the president and extort billions, and no-one seems to care at all.

Re: No, you didn't tell us

> Is this part of Reg's love of 'Sammy'?

I think El Reg has published quite a few articles criticising Samsung, or poking fun at their exploding washing machines (or both).