SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong and prosecutors have decided not to invoke a court ruling that convicted him of bribing South Korea’s former president for business courtesies Two-and-a-half years’ imprisonment was upheld for the most influential business executive, according to lawyers and court officials on Monday.
But Lee’s legal troubles are not over yet. He has been charged separately for stock manipulation, breach of trust and control violations related to a 2015 merger between two Samsung affiliates. The deal helped strengthen Lee’s control of Samsung’s business empire.
The bribery charge involving Lee was a key crime in the 2016 corruption scandal that expelled Park Geun-hye from the presidency and sent her to prison.
In a highly anticipated new lawsuit against Lee last week, the Seoul Supreme Court found him guilty of bribing Park and one of her closest confidants to gain government support for the controversial Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries merger, which took Lee’s control of the company. Samsung helped strengthen. rich.
The deal met with opposition from some shareholders who claimed that the Lee family took advantage of it unfairly and succeeded only with the backing of a state-controlled national pension fund, one of Samsung’s largest investors.
Lee had portrayed himself as a victim of the president’s abuse of power, and his lawyers criticized the ruling. But after considering his options, Lee decided to “humbly accept the Supreme Court’s decision,” said lead attorney Injae Lee.
Prosecutors had sought a 9-year sentence for Lee Jae-yong. In a statement released to the domestic media, they said the court was too lenient on Lee given the seriousness of his crimes, but they will not appeal because their main goal was to prove that the payments between Lee and Park were bribes.
Samsung has not released any statement regarding Lee’s legal issues.
Lee, 52, heads the Samsung group in his capacity as vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of computer chips and smartphones.
Like other family-run conglomerates in South Korea, Samsung helped propel the country’s economy into one of the world’s largest of the ruins of the 1950-53 Korean War. But their obscure ownership structures and often corrupt links with bureaucrats and government officials are seen as a hotbed of corruption in South Korea.
Lee has never admitted to committing legal wrongdoing, but has expressed remorse for causing “public concern” over the corruption scandal and has worked to improve Samsung’s public image. He stated that hereditary transfers would end at Samsung and promised that the management rights he inherited from his father would not be passed on to his children. He also said Samsung would stop repressing workers’ attempts to unionize, although labor activists have questioned his honesty.
It is not immediately clear what his imprisonment would mean for Samsung’s affairs. Samsung showed no specific signs of trouble when Lee was in prison in 2017 and 2018. Prison conditions have never really stopped Korean business leaders from passing their business decisions behind bars.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court upheld Park’s 20-year sentence for the Samsung case and other bribes and extortion while in office from 2013 to 2016.