via text message from South Korea’s spy agency. Such practices are not
unusual in South Korea, where government and corporations work hand in
hand for the national interest.
“Korea-related issues [at Elliott] are handled out of Hong Kong and said
to be on strict lockdown,” wrote the strategy chief of the National
Intelligence Service (NIS), South Korea’s equivalent of the CIA, to a
Samsung executive. “Will be meeting with a source on Monday to find out
more and will find out further details from a friend.”
Later the agent reported that the “lawyer actually handling this case is
Jang Dae-gun. Twenty-second graduating class of the institute,” likely
referring to his graduating class at South Korea’s judicial training institute.
The Samsung president and the spy contacted each other at least 150
times by text message and phone, according to a leak obtained two years
later by South Korean investigative magazine SisaIN. The magazine learned
from messages it obtained that the government spy agency had been
watching Elliott since 2013.
It was now nine days before the vote.
“ ‘Jewish ISS [Institutional Shareholder Services]’ blatantly supported
‘Jewish Elliott,’ ” read a headline in the Munhwa Ilbo newspaper.
“Jews are known to wield enormous power on Wall Street and in global
financial circles,” wrote a columnist at the business tabloid MediaPen,
adding that it is a “well-known fact that the US government is swayed by
Jewish capital.
“Jewish money,” the website reported, “has long been known to be
ruthless and merciless.” The website called Paul Singer the “greedy,
ruthless head of a notorious hedge fund.”
“Elliott is led by a Jew, Paul E. Singer,” the business tabloid website
Money Today wrote, “and ISS [Institutional Shareholder Services, the
advisory firm that told shareholders not to vote for the merger] is an
affiliate of Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI), whose key
shareholders are Jewish.
“According to a source in the finance industry, Jews have a robust
network demonstrating influence in a number of domains.”
The Anti-Defamation League and other rights groups called on the
South Korean government to condemn anti-Semitism. The organization
pointed to its survey that found that 59 percent of South Koreans believed
“Jews have too much power in the business world.”