Samsung discomforted by chairman's sex scandal

By Kim Bo-eun

Samsung Group on Friday expressed discomfort over a sex scandal involving its Chairman Lee Kun-hee, currently hospitalized.

Video footage implicating that Lee paid sex workers at his home was made public by a local online news outlet, Newstapa, Thursday night.

The outlet said it received the footage in April from an anonymous informant. The makers of the video allegedly attempted to blackmail Lee and the group, the news outlet reported.

In reaction, Samsung Group issued a short statement.

“We are discomforted by the stir involving Chairman Lee Kun-hee,” it said. “However, the issue is a personal matter of Chairman Lee, so on behalf of the group we have nothing to say.”

According to the news report, the seven-hour video was taken over five occasions between December 2011 and June 2013 at Lee’s residence in Samseong-dong and a secret residence in Nonhyeon-dong, both in southern Seoul.

Newstapa reported that conversations between Lee and the women indicated they were having sex. Up to five women, presumably in their 20s and 30s, appear in the video each time, all alleged to be workers at bars or other entertainment establishments. Each woman was paid around 5 million won ($4,400) by the chairman, according to the news outlet.

One of the women seen is suspected of having made the video and it seems she had two accomplices.

Samsung Group had received a call demanding money in exchange for the video, but did not respond because it did not consider the existence of such a video credible, according to Newstapa.

Lee, 74, has been hospitalized since he collapsed from a heart attack in May 2014. The group said he is still unconscious.