The Supreme Court returned the case to the high court in 2019, ruling that the amount of Lee’s bribes had been undervalued. Lee was originally sentenced in 2017 to five years in prison on the corruption charges but was freed after 11 months in February 2018 following a Seoul High Court ruling that reduced his term to 2 ½ years and suspended his sentence, overturning key convictions and reducing the amount of his bribes. He runs the conglomerate in his capacity as vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, one of the world’s biggest makers of computer memory chips and smartphones.
Lee is the third-generation leader of the Samsung business group that was founded by his grandfather. The decision marked an about-face for the government of President Moon Jae-in, who after winning the presidential by-election in 2017 pledged to curb the excesses of “chaebol,” or South Korea’s family-owned conglomerates, and end their cozy ties with the government. In including Lee among some 800 prisoners who were granted paroles ahead of Sunday’s Liberation Day, which celebrates Korea’s independence from Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II, Justice Ministry cited unspecified economic concerns related to the pandemic and global markets. His lawyers have insisted the allegations in that case were not criminal acts but were normal business activities.
SAMSUNG LEADER MOVE FORWARD OUT JAIL TRIAL
He appeared at the Seoul Central District Court on Thursday for another trial over alleged stock price manipulation, auditing violations and other financial crimes related to the 2015 merger. His case was part of a massive corruption scandal that triggered nationwide protests and led to the impeachment and ouster of Park, who has been jailed since 2017 and won’t be released until 2039 if she fully serves her term.Įven with his release, Lee isn’t out of the legal woods. Lee, 53, served a total of 18 months of a 30-month sentence for embezzling millions of dollars from corporate funds to bribe South Korea’s previous president, Park Geun-hye, to ensure government support for a 2015 merger between two Samsung affiliates that tightened his control over the corporate empire.
He added that he was keeping close attention to the “concerns, criticism and huge expectations” about him and then walked into a black sedan without answering reporters’ questions. I am very sorry,” Lee said before bowing. “(I) caused too much concern to our people. Hundreds of demonstrators standing behind police lines simultaneously shouted slogans denouncing or welcoming his release.
Wearing a gray suit and a mask, Lee stepped out of the prison gates in Uiwang to a barrage of camera flashes. from a prison near the capital makes Lee just the latest in a long line of South Korean corporate bosses receiving lenient punishment for corruption and financial crimes. SEOUL-Embattled Samsung leader Lee Jae-yong apologized for causing public concern upon being paroled from prison Friday with a year left on his sentence for crimes related to the explosive corruption scandal that toppled South Korea’s previous president.
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