:00:00. > :00:17.From boardroom chief to commander in chief.
:00:18. > :00:22.Trump hands control of his business empire to his sons.
:00:23. > :00:23.But ethical questions will remain for America's
:00:24. > :00:32.Plus - "I apologize to the South Korean people".
:00:33. > :00:38.Samsung boss Jay Y Lee is questioned in a growing corruption scandal
:00:39. > :00:46.I'm Sally Bundock - we'll be live in Seoul in a moment
:00:47. > :00:54.we are in the US where, as you've been hearing,
:00:55. > :00:58.President-elect Donald Trump has been dismissing claims Russia holds
:00:59. > :01:00.compromising material on him, calling it "fake news".
:01:01. > :01:03.The row has even threatened to overshadow controversy over
:01:04. > :01:07.Mr Trump's business dealings and concerns he will face a major
:01:08. > :01:09.conflict of interest once in the White House.
:01:10. > :01:13.On Wednesday he said he'd hold onto his business empire but hand
:01:14. > :01:16."complete control" to his two eldest sons, Donald Junior and Eric.
:01:17. > :01:19.So will it be enough to silence the critics?
:01:20. > :01:24.The Trump Organisation is not listed on the stock market so it doesn't
:01:25. > :01:33.But according to private company research firm Privco the real
:01:34. > :01:36.estate, hotel and leisure empire made revenues of $9.5
:01:37. > :01:44.According to Bloomberg - as well as billions in assets,
:01:45. > :01:46.the organisation has some $600 million of debt,
:01:47. > :01:49.owed to scores of financial institutions.
:01:50. > :01:52.Another potential source of conflict.
:01:53. > :01:56.It employs an estimated 22,000 people in more than 20 countries,
:01:57. > :02:04.raising questions over foreign policy But Mr Trump's lawyer says
:02:05. > :02:07."no new foreign deals will be made whatsoever" while he is president.
:02:08. > :02:10.She says over 30 pending deals have been cancelled,
:02:11. > :02:15.instantly losing the family millions of dollars.
:02:16. > :02:21.And an ethics advisor will be appointed to approve all dealings
:02:22. > :02:24.that might raise conflict of interest concerns or be seen
:02:25. > :02:26.to exploit the office of the presidency.
:02:27. > :02:41.In order to address issues of conflict of interest the
:02:42. > :02:44.President-elect is said he will establish a trust and will turn over
:02:45. > :02:51.management of his organisation to that trust. The trust will be run by
:02:52. > :02:55.his two sons and a trusted adviser. The President-elect has also said
:02:56. > :02:58.there will not be any new international deals made by the
:02:59. > :03:04.Trump organisation while he is in office and any new domestic deals
:03:05. > :03:09.will be subject to the approval of a self appointed as its adviser that
:03:10. > :03:15.will be also part of this trust. Have a listen to a little bit of
:03:16. > :03:19.what the President-elect said in a press conference about his business
:03:20. > :03:26.interests. My two sons who are right here, Don and Eric, are going to be
:03:27. > :03:31.running the company. They are going to be running it in a very
:03:32. > :03:35.professional manner. They're not gonna discuss it with me. Again, I
:03:36. > :03:39.don't have to do this. They're not gonna disgusted with me. The
:03:40. > :03:45.question is whether this will be enough to silence its critics. And
:03:46. > :03:49.the early indication is that it probably won't. The biggest problem,
:03:50. > :03:54.of course, being that Mr Trump has not fully divest it and many people
:03:55. > :03:57.believe that in order for this to really work, the President-elect
:03:58. > :04:02.would actually have to sell any of his business interests. Further,
:04:03. > :04:08.establishing a trust with his two sons at the helm doesn't really give
:04:09. > :04:14.enough distance between the highest office in the land and the Trump
:04:15. > :04:24.organisation. So many questions remain. I am joined by Stephanie. Is
:04:25. > :04:29.this enough? It does not even come close to being enough and he knows
:04:30. > :04:33.this. Congress knows this and the press knows this. So what will be
:04:34. > :04:39.interesting will be how will we hold him to account on this? Every other
:04:40. > :04:43.president in modern history has put their assets into a blind trust. It
:04:44. > :04:47.is completely fair to say that that is difficult in this case because
:04:48. > :04:51.his empire is so massive. It is about real estate as opposed to just
:04:52. > :04:55.shares. So we are in uncharted territory with the kind of assets
:04:56. > :05:00.that he has. But the idea that this is going to be transferred to his
:05:01. > :05:04.children and that guarantees a sense of neutrality for him is proposed
:05:05. > :05:09.is. You can imagine the family discussions over dinner. But the
:05:10. > :05:14.independent ethics adviser, whoever he or she will be, will that be held
:05:15. > :05:22.full or is that just tokenism? Exactly. What power will this person
:05:23. > :05:26.have caught? If the President-elect is the boss for this person, they
:05:27. > :05:30.can make advice or comments but that is the question here and this is the
:05:31. > :05:34.detail we are lacking. The other issue of course, there was a lack of
:05:35. > :05:38.detail in the press conference about anything else and market around the
:05:39. > :05:42.world are reacting in different ways. The dollar has fallen quite a
:05:43. > :05:47.lot over the last couple of days. We have seen shares falling in Japan.
:05:48. > :05:50.There is concern that he is still not saying much about his policies
:05:51. > :05:54.are for businesses in and outside the US it is difficult for them to
:05:55. > :05:58.know what his presidency will mean. There is one thing I think has
:05:59. > :06:02.become abundantly clear and that will continue well before his
:06:03. > :06:07.inauguration which is this desire to seek jobs kept in the United States.
:06:08. > :06:12.Any plans that any specifically American companies had to take jobs
:06:13. > :06:16.outside will be criticised. We have already seen him happily and
:06:17. > :06:19.deliberately use his Twitter account to criticise companies whose share
:06:20. > :06:23.prices have been collapsed. Every board and the United States is going
:06:24. > :06:28.to be factoring that into their risk management strategy. They do very
:06:29. > :06:30.much for coming and. We will see you again soon.
:06:31. > :06:33.We are also in South Korea where technology giant Samsung has
:06:34. > :06:35.been battling to rebuild its reputation after its top
:06:36. > :06:38.of the range phone had to be withdrawn following a spate
:06:39. > :06:42.In the last few hours, a new setback for the firm,
:06:43. > :06:46.as boss Jay Y Lee was called in for questioning in a widening
:06:47. > :06:48.corruption investigation that has already seen the president
:06:49. > :06:53.Mr Lee is seen as the heir apparent of the firm,
:06:54. > :06:56.which he has been running since his father Lee Kun-Hee had
:06:57. > :07:00.Investigators want to know if the company gave millions
:07:01. > :07:05.of dollars to a friend of the South Korean president
:07:06. > :07:13.Let's talk to the BBC's Stephen Evans in Seoul.
:07:14. > :07:25.We have heard a lot of apology but nobody admitting to wrong doing so
:07:26. > :07:28.far. Is that correct? Yes. It's one of those... Connoisseurs of
:07:29. > :07:32.apologies will relish this case. It is one of the cases where somebody
:07:33. > :07:37.is saying sorry but I am innocent. The apology today was I am very,
:07:38. > :07:42.very sorry for creating a bad image. The President's apology was for
:07:43. > :07:47.trusting, I am very sorry but I trusted people too much. So
:07:48. > :07:52.apologies, yes... Admissions of guilt, absolutely not. These remain
:07:53. > :07:58.allegations which are being investigated. Very serious
:07:59. > :08:05.allegations because a lot of outside shareholders from Samsung, people
:08:06. > :08:09.who have shares in Samsung but who are outside the family as saying
:08:10. > :08:13.this merger of two companies back in 2015 within Samsung was basically so
:08:14. > :08:18.the family could tighten its control of the company and was not actually
:08:19. > :08:23.to the benefit of shareholders in general. So if the pension fund, the
:08:24. > :08:27.third biggest in the world, remember, stuck its votes behind the
:08:28. > :08:30.family because the family had done private deal with the President to
:08:31. > :08:37.give money to the President's friend, that would be a pretty
:08:38. > :08:41.serious matter. The difficulty is it's an allegation of nudge and a
:08:42. > :08:46.wink corruption. This is not cash in brown envelopes at, it is meetings
:08:47. > :08:50.with only two people present doing deals. That is the allegation and
:08:51. > :08:55.that is very, very difficult to prove. In the long run, how damaging
:08:56. > :08:59.could this be for Samsung given its recent history which, as we
:09:00. > :09:03.mentioned, exploding phone and everything, but they have been so
:09:04. > :09:07.many other issues for Samsung as playful is not who knows. But my
:09:08. > :09:12.feeling is not damaging at all, not very much damaging. You know, people
:09:13. > :09:19.purchase phones because they like the phone. And there is a history of
:09:20. > :09:28.corruption, I think that is the word we can use, at the top of the
:09:29. > :09:32.companies in this country. A lot of the political presidents have been
:09:33. > :09:38.found guilty of corruption but you get the sense that they do not
:09:39. > :09:43.really feel that is a serious crime. It is sometimes even they go to jail
:09:44. > :09:47.and sometimes they are pardoned, sometimes they are not. In this
:09:48. > :09:52.case, let us assume that he is found guilty and goes to jail, the company
:09:53. > :09:57.will go on, the phones will keep coming, people will purchase or they
:09:58. > :10:01.don't. Thank you very much. Quite interesting. Let's have quick look
:10:02. > :10:04.at markets in Asia so you have a sense of how the day is progressing
:10:05. > :10:08.so far. Obviously that is not the market at all. That is an apology
:10:09. > :10:11.for interrupting in our programme. We don't need that today,
:10:12. > :10:16.thankfully. Headed south today. We have Japan under pressure because
:10:17. > :10:19.the yen is going up in value. The dollar is down in reaction to the
:10:20. > :10:22.press conference from Donald Trump. More on that in a moment as we
:10:23. > :10:23.review the press. I