Crime does pay!

If you think crime does not pay, then think again. Lee Kun Hee the South Korean convicted Tycoon, who quit the Samsung Group after being charged for tax evasion in August 2008, was just granted a pardon by President Lee Myung Bak. The president granted him a reprieve so he can lead South Korea’s bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Apparently this is not the first time that Lee Kun Hee, 67 was granted a pardon either. In 1990s he was pardoned after he was convicted of bribing two former presidents!!!

Incidentally South Korean is not the first country that pardoned an Olympic Official. It appears that France has done it before; they granted clemency to an Olympic official to boost their bid to host the Games. In 2006, French President Jacques Chirac pardoned Guy Drut, (a former sports minister who was handed a 15-month suspended sentence for corruption) so he can reclaim a seat on France’s International Olympic Committee.

What’s more, the South Korea’s 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic Winter Games Bid Committee has actually sought the pardon to help their chances of hosting the event after losing twice before in 2007 to Russia’s Sochi and to Vancouver in 2003. They are obviously pulling all the stops for their third attempt, and it seems that almost half the country is backing them. According to opinion polls and researchers most South Koreans, about 44 percent approved Hee’s clemency and supported the presidential reprieve, while only 27 percent opposed it. The remaining 29 percent did not respond to the survey it’s been reported.

This might not help or improve the national image of South Korea, or the esteem of their judiciary, but it most defiantly proves that crime does pay; of course it depends on where you live and who you know!