Do we like them?

Do we like Lee Jae-yong?

Our score: 5 out of 10. No harmful words of his own turned up, but a bribery conviction and a late turn on unions leave a complicated record with little personal good on file.

Lee Jae-yong is the head of Samsung Electronics, born into South Korea's biggest chaebol. His career has been defined as much by the courts as by chips. He is Korea's richest man, and that has long meant he is watched closely, and sometimes punished.

The big stain is the 2017 conviction for bribing then-president Park Geun-hye and her confidante to win government support for a merger between two Samsung affiliates. He served 18 months, was paroled, then pardoned in August 2022, with the government citing the economy. In a statement he said he was grateful for “receiving an opportunity to start anew”. That is a pardon, not a clean slate.

The second long saga was the 2015 merger case, which went to the top. Prosecutors indicted him on 19 counts including accounting fraud and breach of trust, alleging a scheme to take control of Samsung cheaply. He was acquitted at first trial in 2024, on appeal in February 2025, and by the Supreme Court in July 2025. Samsung said the court affirmed the merger was lawful.

On the harm test, we found nothing from him on LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or climate, and no conspiracy-theory slide. That is a thin record, not a glowing one, so treat the pass as 'nothing found' rather than 'campaigned for'. The labour record is where the stain sits: in 2020 he apologised publicly, saying Samsung had not strictly complied with laws and ethics, and promised to end the no-union approach.

The recent drama: in May 2026 Samsung's union threatened an 18-day strike over bonuses. Lee flew back from Japan and apologised to customers and the public, saying he would take responsibility for everything. Critics noted that it was his first public apology as chairman since October 2022. Soon after, a deal was struck with the labour minister mediating, with the pool set at 10.5 per cent, short of the 15 per cent the union wanted.

On the good side, we found one personal donation on record: reports say he gave 1 billion won to the Samsung Life Public Welfare Foundation in 2021. That is real but modest set against his wealth, and it sits alongside company-run programs rather than anything he did at personal cost. The honest summary is that the good-stuff column is short.