Seoul
THE heir to the Samsung empire faces the verdict in his corruption trial on Friday, which threatens to leave the world's biggest smartphone maker rudderless for more than a decade.
Lee Jae-Yong, vice-chairman of Samsung Electronics and the son of Samsung group chairman Lee Kun-Hee, has been groomed all his life to take over the giant conglomerate founded by his grandfather in 1938. It is by far the largest of the chaebols, the family-controlled firms that dominate Asia's fourth-largest economy, which some South Koreans self-mockingly dub the "Republic of Samsung".
Its turnover is equivalent to a fifth of the national GDP and it has long had close, opaque connections with political authorities....