Former Samsung Union Chairman Sanghoon Lee 'Not Guilty'... "Illegal Search and Seizure" (Comprehensive)

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] Former Samsung Electronics board chairman Lee Sang-hoon, who was prosecuted for involvement in union-busting operations at a subsidiary, was acquitted. Lee was sentenced to prison and detained in the first trial, but was found not guilty in the appellate court.

On the 4th, the Supreme Court's First Division (Presiding Justice Park Jeong-hwa) upheld the appellate court's ruling that acquitted Lee, who was prosecuted for violating the Labor Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act.

Lee and others were indicted for allegedly devising a so-called 'Greenification' strategy led by the Samsung Group Future Strategy Office's HR support team in 2013 to disrupt the establishment of a union at Samsung Electronics Service. They formed a comprehensive control room and carried out oppressive acts such as wage cuts, discriminatory treatment, and targeted audits. In particular, they shut down subcontractors with strong unions, causing economic hardship for union members, and leaked sensitive information about union members. They were also accused of embezzling company funds to provide hush money to the bereaved families of deceased union members and deliberately delaying labor-management negotiations. The prosecution's investigation revealed that executives from the Korea Employers Federation and intelligence police were involved in this process.

The first trial sentenced Lee and Samsung Electronics Vice President Kang Kyung-hoon to 1 year and 6 months in prison and detained them. At that time, former and current executives including Choi Pyeong-seok, former executive director of Samsung Electronics Service (1 year and 2 months), Mok Jang-gyun, executive director of Samsung Electronics (1 year), and Park Sang-beom, former CEO of Samsung Electronics Service (1 year and 6 months), were also sentenced to prison terms.

Only the judgment on Lee was overturned in the second trial. The appellate court ruled that the search and seizure in this case were illegal and thus the evidence was inadmissible, acquitting Lee. Earlier, in February 2018, during an investigation into former President Lee Myung-bak's bribery charges, hidden external hard drives were found in the underground parking lot of Samsung Electronics' Suwon headquarters. The hard drives contained documents indicating that Samsung Group systematically conducted union-busting operations at subsidiaries. The court found the evidence collection process to be illegal.

The Supreme Court's ruling was consistent. The court stated, "The electronic information and printouts in this case were seized in violation of the territorial scope of the warrant, and the obligation to present the warrant was also violated, infringing on the principles of the warrant system, the Constitution, and the substantial content of due process as prescribed by the Criminal Procedure Act." It added that the evidence could not be considered admissible even as an exception.

Furthermore, the seizure of the storage media kept by the HR team was deemed illegal as it exceeded the warrant's scope. The court confirmed, "The evidence was obtained without presenting the warrant to the possessor and was illegally collected."

However, the court clarified that this does not mean those involved in the union-busting operations were not complicit or participants. It upheld most of the original ruling that recognized substantial guilt, finding that the union-busting strategy created by Samsung Group's Future Strategy Office to enforce a 'non-union management policy' was executed in a conspiracy chain from Samsung Electronics to Samsung Electronics Service to partner companies.

Meanwhile, after the first trial verdict, Samsung Electronics and Samsung C&T Corporation issued a 'public apology,' and in May last year, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong held a press conference saying, "I sincerely apologize to everyone who has been hurt by Samsung's union issues. From now on, the phrase 'non-union management' will no longer be associated with Samsung. We will strictly comply with labor relations laws and fully guarantee labor rights."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.