B.C. Lee in Podcasts

As his eyes adjust to the light, he no doubt takes in his surroundings. A hard stone floor, flag-draped walls, soldiers in crisp fatigues flanking each entrance. At the other end of the room waits a man. A man with the power to snatch away everything B.C. Lee has spent his last two decades building. B.C. Lee had tried to avoid this moment altogether, but his country is in crisis.

A good place to think. B.C. Lee had stepped aside as Samsungs chairman, hoping, it's thought, that this would be enough to spare his family. Samsung told us he'd done it as a sign of respect for Korean society since it had been his son who caused the controversy.

It's 1969. Three years after a scandal that saw Samsung chairman B.C. Lee step down from running the company he founded. And things haven't been much better since. At a moment like this, I picture B.C. Lee staring across the tree-lined grounds of his home in central Seoul. A two-story mansion in its own high-walled compound. An oasis amongst the South Korean capitals developing high-rises.