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Samsung heir Jay Y. Lee is likely to return to prison after a South Korean court found him guilty of bribery for his role in a massive corruption scandal.
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Seoul Supreme Court has sentenced Lee – the 52-year-old vice president of Samsung Electronics – to two and a half years in prison on Monday and found him guilty of bribing former Korean President Park Geun-hye for government support for to win a 2015. merger of two Samsung subsidiaries.
The verdict follows a highly anticipated retrial for Lee, who served 11 months of his initial five-year prison sentence before an appeals court suspended the sentence and allowed him to be released in 2018.
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The time Lee has already spent behind bars will add to the new sentence of two and a half years, which means he will be locked up for about a year and a half once he is back in jail.
Lee may appeal Monday’s verdict to the Korean Supreme Court – which orders him to stand trial again in 2019 – but legal experts told Reuters that the court is unlikely to change its legal interpretation because it has already weighed in on the case once. .
Samsung heir Jay Y. Lee is likely to return to prison after a South Korean court found him guilty of bribery for his role in a massive corruption scandal. (AFP PHOTO / POOL / Chung Sung-Jun / Getty Images)
Samsung Electronics’ share price in Korea fell 3.4 percent to 85,000 won ($ 76.90) after the ruling Monday.
An important part of the case was Lee’s offer of 8.6 billion won (about $ 7.8 million) bribes to then-President Park and her friend Choi Soon-sil. The scandal led to large-scale protests in South Korea and led to the expulsion of Park, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
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Judge Jeong Jun-yeong, Judge Jeong Jun-yeong, the sentence for bribery, embezzlement and concealment of criminal proceeds noted that Lee was open to improving Samsung’s compliance and promised to create a ‘transparent company’.
“Despite some shortcomings … I hope that over time it will be evaluated as a milestone in the history of Korean companies as a start for compliance and ethics,” the judge said.
Lee did not comment when the judge gave him the opportunity to speak, but his lawyer called the court’s ruling ‘regrettable’.
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“This case involves the abuse of power of the former president who violates corporate freedom and property rights,” Lee In-jae, the lawyer, told reporters.