Samsung is no stranger to scandal these days. The company's former vice president, Jay Y. Lee, was found recently in jail after being involved in the corruption scandal that resulted in the fall of the former South-Korean president. Korean Park Geun-hye. A controversy could also break out in the American arm of Samsung. Samsung's marketing director, Marc Mathieu, abruptly resigned following a survey of bribes between Samsung employees and marketing partners.

Mathieu is responsible for Samsung's focus on partnering with YouTubers and other creatives rather than going through traditional advertising agencies. The Wall Street Journal reported that Samsung had conducted the investigation to discover bribes and bribes likely to create conflicts of interest. The company feared that marketers would direct resources to channels that are not the best for Samsung.

Samsung did not comment on the result of the marketing audit nor even confirmed that it had done one. The WSJ said that the audit had been great news for the company: an unknown number of marketing employees had been fired without compensation on March 15, at the end of the investigation. Mathieu's departure had been announced before, but the moment is suspect. It is possible that he was blamed for allowing the alleged kickbacks to affect marketing operations. Again, Samsung does not offer details and has not yet appointed a replacement for Mathieu.