Lee Jae-yong, the head of South Korea's Samsung Group, was recently released from prison on parole, and after Lee Jae-yong was arrested in court in January this year for accepting bribes, the Samsung Group has been unowned for more than 200 days.
Although Samsung has always said that the company is operating normally, all sectors of society are worried about whether the foundation of this huge business empire is still solid after experiencing the death of the second generation of leaders and the lawsuits of the three generations of heirs just taking office, after all, the history of this family is comparable to an epic palace fight drama.
In South Korea, Samsung is like a huge octopus, with the group as the core, the tentacles extend to major industries, Samsung Group's operating income accounts for more than 20% of South Korea's overall GDP, Samsung is in a sense a microcosm of South Korea, and the founder of this empire is Lee Byung-chol.
During World War II, Lee Byung-che earned the first pot of gold by delivering grain, fruits and vegetables to northeast China, and as a result, after the outbreak of the Pacific War, Lee Byung-cheol's grain processing plant collapsed and was on the verge of bankruptcy, and his third son, Lee Kin-hee, was also born at this time, because the business was bankrupt, and Lee Byung-che could only send him to the countryside to be raised by the elderly.
After Li Bingzhe began to look for a way out to make a comeback, in 1948 the foreign trade policy brought a turning point to Li Bingzhe, he took advantage of this opportunity to create Samsung Property, only one year to earn 120 million profits, and then quickly developed and grew, the profit reached 6 billion, Lee Bingzhe began to create a huge Samsung empire based on this.
He then took Lee Kin-hee, who was fostered in the countryside, back to him and raised him, and then gave birth to several daughters in succession, but after they got married one after another, they stopped worrying about the family business.
In the twilight of Lee Byung-cheol's twilight years, the position of Samsung heir fell among the eldest son Lee Meng-hee, the second son Lee Chang-hee, and the third son Lee Kin-hee, and At that time, Lee Kin-hee was the least optimistic one of the board members, because he did not grow up next to his parents, and Lee Kin-hee and Lee Byung-cheol were not very close.
At that time, the loudest voice was the eldest son Li Mengxi, Li Bingzhe did favor this eldest son, very early let him participate in the management of the group, but it was very helpless that this prince was actually a dou who could not be supported, Li Bingzhe just handed over the power to him, the group was messed up by him, the profit fell off a cliff, Li Bingzhe had to take back his power in a fit of anger.
After being seized of power, Li Mengxi felt that he had lost face, full of resentment, and in a fit of anger, he collected a large amount of evidence of Tax Evasion and evaded taxes by Li Bingzhe and ran to the Blue House to report it under his real name.
But he underestimated his father's strength, and Li Bingzhe threw him out of the house in a fit of rage. But Li Mengxi's real-name report must have a result, at this time, the second son Li Changxi, who thinks he is smart, took the initiative to stand up for his father, and was imprisoned for half a year, he thought he could take this opportunity to show loyalty and inherit the family business after he was released, but he did not think that when he came out, the sky had changed.
Li Changxi did not learn any techniques since he was a child, And Li Bingzhe had no intention of letting him succeed to the throne, and his self-styled cleverness just went along with Li Bingzhe's wishes, and he also achieved Li Jianxi, who sat on the profits of the fisherman.
After Lee Chang-hee was released from prison, he found that his father did not miss his good at all, but handed over the entire group to Lee Kin-hee, so he also followed the example of his eldest brother and wanted to break the net with Lee Byung-cheol, but he was sent to a mental hospital by Lee Byung-cheol as a neurosis, and did not come out again until his death.
The succession dispute of the first generation of Samsung is full of smoke, the plot of father and son anti-eye is already ups and downs, but this is just the beginning, Lee Byung-cheol's resolute attitude towards his two sons makes the other children very cold and dissatisfied, and after Lee Byung-cheol's death, he turned the spearhead to Lee Kin-hee, who was in power.
When Lee Byung-chol died of illness in 1987, Lee's nephew and sister Lee Sook-hee, who married into LG, joined forces to take him to court several times, demanding that his father's estate be re-divided, but it was repeatedly rejected by the court.
Lee Kin Hee also began his strong counterattack, smearing his sister Lee Sook Hee and saying that she became a resentful woman after marrying into LG, full of lies.
In the face of his nephew, Lee Jae-hyun's son Lee Jae-hyun was secretly sabotaged by Samsung in the CJ Group takeover war, and later sued for bribery, but Lee Jian-hee stood by and watched from beginning to end;
Lee Chang-hee's son Lee Jae-chan's son, Lee Jae-chan, was on the verge of bankruptcy when he turned to his uncle Lee Kin-hee for help and was refused, after which his wife was separated, penniless and even reduced to unemployed vagrants, and eventually committed suicide due to depression.
Not only that, after Li Jianxi's position was gradually stabilized, he also gradually separated the property in the hands of his sister from the three-star headquarters, and the Three Young Masters, who were once known as the Stuffy Gourd, have now grown into a big chaebol who kills people and does not see blood, And Li Jianxi uses practical actions to make those who try to covet his position all leave in praise, after all, even those who do not let go of their sisters and nephews will not be soft on any enemy.
In this way, the war of the second generation of Samsung is much more tragic than that of the first generation, and Lee Kin Hee has gradually consolidated his throne, rectifying the family's internal strife on the one hand and controlling the group reform on the other.
In 1999, Samsung Group made the first smartphone that can connect to the Internet, and in the early 2000s, Samsung mobile phones occupied more than half of the market share in the global electronics market, until the emergence of Apple.
Although the entire Samsung Empire has been growing and growing, there is still a dark tide surging inside it. In 2007, Samsung's chief lawyer reported lee to the South Korean government for several crimes, including bribery, tax evasion, and other crimes, and the evidence was conclusive, Lee was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for five years, and Lee was forced to resign as president of Samsung.
But in 2009, South Korea bid for the Olympic Games, as the country's largest consortium, Samsung can not be leaderless, so the South Korean president exercised immunity to Lee Ken-hee, Lee Ken-hee was the president of Samsung, after which Samsung launched the Galaxy S series, once became Apple's strongest competitor.
According to informed sources, Lee Kin Hee's prison disaster still stemmed from family infighting, and the inheritance dispute of that year has not subsided.
Sure enough, in 2012, her sister Lee Sook-hee sued Lee again, claiming 4.1 trillion won for Lee For stealing the shares Lee had left her, but the court dismissed her lawsuit.
The dispute over the inheritance of the second generation did not slowly subside until this generation gradually grew old, and Lee Jianxi also learned a heavy lesson from it, so he did not demand a number of heirs, only one son and three daughters, but the younger daughter Li Yinxin committed suicide in 2005.
And Lee Kin Hee has divided the family business early on, with the eldest son Lee Jae-yong in charge of Samsung Electronics, the eldest daughter Li Fu Allah in charge of the hotel chemical industry, and the second daughter Lee Su-hsien in charge of fashion and advertising.
Although it seems to be a talent policy, but still the most important electronics industry to the eldest son, but Lee Fu-jin is deeply rooted in her father's true heritage, in her hands to develop the Silla Hotel, has become a top enterprise in South Korea, and the luxury industry she promotes has a strong momentum of development in South Korea, and even become the main channel for global luxury shopping.
Not only that, Li Fuzhen is still a face value, although he is over fifty years old, but the style is still the same, when he was young, he was a beauty who attracted national attention, but the rich and beautiful strong woman, in the end, still lost in feelings.
When he was young, Li Fuzhen fell in love with the phoenix man Ren Youzai, although his father strongly opposed it, but the stubborn Li Fuzhen did not hesitate to go on a hunger strike to protest, and In desperation, Li Jianxi had to accept this marriage.
After marriage, in order to let his son-in-law grow up as soon as possible, Li Jianxi first arranged for him to study business management abroad, but he did not expect that he could not even pass the language barrier, and he committed suicide, so he had no choice but to quit school halfway.
After returning to China, Li Jianxi gave him a part of the group business, but Ren Youzai was still mud and could not support the wall, the original normal operation of the factory was almost bankrupt, and the disappointed Li Jianxi deserved to give him an idle job, hoping that he could share some good things.
Unexpectedly, Ren Youzai, who had achieved nothing in his career, actually began to spend days and nights, and even cheated on domestic violence, Li Fuzhen finally saw the essence of this phoenix man and proposed a divorce.
Unexpectedly, Ren Youzai actually opened his mouth widely, to take away half of Li Fuzhen's property, about 2.1 billion US dollars, and to fight for the custody of the child.
The absurd divorce lasted four years, and finally Lee Fu-jin gave Ren Youzai 14.1 billion won, about 80 million yuan, won custody of his son, and finally ended the nearly 20-year absurd marriage.
With the death of Lee Kin Hee, the Samsung family has moved to the third generation, and the history of the rise and fall of this family for a hundred years is simply a magnificent palace fight, business war, and emotional drama, and their story continues.