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Samsung’s heir Jay Y. Lee is likely returning to prison after a South Korean court convicted him of bribery for his role in a massive corruption scandal.
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The Seoul Supreme Court sentenced Lee – the vice president of Samsung Electronics, 52 – to two and a half years in prison on Monday, pleading guilty to bribing former Korean President Park Geun-hye to win the government support for a 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates.
The verdict followed a highly anticipated retrial for Lee, who served 11 months of his initial five-year sentence before an appeals court suspended his sentence and allowed him to be released in 2018.
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The time Lee has spent behind bars will count for the new two-and-a-half-year sentence, which means he will be in prison for about a year and a half once he returns to prison.
Lee may appeal Monday’s sentence to the Korean Supreme Court – which ordered his retrial in 2019 – but legal experts told Reuters the court is unlikely to change its legal interpretation because it has already assessed the case once.
Samsung’s heir Jay Y. Lee is likely returning to prison after a South Korean court convicted him of bribery for his role in a massive corruption scandal. (AFP PHOTO / POOL / Chung Sung-Jun / Getty Images)
Samsung Electronics’ stock price in Korea fell 3.4 percent to 85,000 won ($ 76.90) after Monday’s ruling.
An important piece of the case was Lee’s offer of 8.6 billion won (about $ 7.8 million) in bribes to then President Park and his friend Choi Soon-sil. The scandal sparked massive protests in South Korea and led to the overthrow of Park, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
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In pronouncing the sentence for bribery, embezzlement and concealment of criminal proceeds, Chief Justice Jeong Jun-yeong noted that Lee is open to improving compliance at Samsung and has pledged to “create a transparent company”.
“Despite some shortcomings … I hope that over time, this will be seen as a milestone in the history of Korean companies as a start to compliance and ethics,” said the judge.
Lee did not comment when the judge gave him a chance to speak, but his lawyer classified the court’s decision as “regrettable”.
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“This case involves the abuse of power by the ex-president, violating corporate freedom and property rights,” lawyer Lee In-jae told reporters.