Bribe Suspects File Defamation Lawsuit

Lee Woo-hee, former S1 Corporation president, and Je Jin-hun, Jeil Industries president, sued Kim Yong-cheol, former chief of legal team at Samsung Group, for defamation charges on Tuesday.

Kim claimed on Monday through the Catholic Priests’ Association for Justice (CPAJ) that former president Lee and president Je had regularly bribed prosecutor-general nominee Lim Chae-jin, and Lee Jong-baek, the chairman of the Korea Independent Commission Against Corruption.

In the subpoena, Lee and Je claimed that they did not do so.

In a telephone interview with this newspaper, Lee said, “Kim committed defamation by unveiling absurd stories groundlessly without any explanation. How could he make me look this stupid?”

In relation to documents released by Kim, Samsung Group also stepped up its criticism by releasing additional documents on Tuesday, saying, “Why did he use the term ‘internal document’ for an already published document, and why did he intend to cover it up? It’s suspicious.”

Samsung Group criticized the CPAJ, which it has refrained from attacking, saying, “What the document is about has already been unveiled, but the CPAJ’s priest, Kim In-guk, repeated the false claim quoting Kim in an MBC radio interview.”

The conglomerate also pointed out in a press release that Kim first claimed that he first rejected the order of giving 3 billion won in bribes to the judge governing the Everland case, a lawsuit against the Samsung Group, but when circumstances turned hostile to him, he changed his mind several times.

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