SEOUL, South Korea (PA) – Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong and prosecutors have decided not to appeal a ruling that convicted him of bribing the former South Korean president for business favors, confirming a two-year prison term years and a half for the country the most influential corporate leader, according to lawyers and court officials on Monday.
But Lee’s legal problems are not over. He has been charged separately with charges of stock price manipulation, breach of trust and breach of audit related to a 2015 merger between two Samsung affiliates. The deal helped strengthen Lee’s control over Samsung’s corporate empire.
The bribery charge involving Lee was a key crime in the 2016 corruption scandal that removed Park Geun-hye from the presidency and sent her to prison.
In a long-awaited retrial of Lee last week, the Seoul High Court found him guilty of bribing Park and one of her closest confidants to win government support for the controversial merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, which helped strengthen Lee’s control over Samsung’s business empire.
The deal faced opposition from shareholders who claimed it had unfairly benefited the Lee family and only succeeded with the support of a state-controlled national pension fund, one of Samsung’s largest investors.
Lee had described himself as a victim of the abuse of presidential power, and his lawyers criticized the decision. But after considering his options, Lee decided to “humbly accept” the High Court’s decision, said his lawyer, Injae Lee.
Prosecutors had sought a 9-year prison sentence for Lee Jae-yong. In a statement to the domestic press, they said the court was too lenient, given the severity of his crimes, but would not appeal, as their biggest goal was to prove that the payments between Lee and Park were bribes. .
Samsung has not released a statement on Lee’s legal issues.
Lee, 52, leads the Samsung group as vice president of Samsung Electronics, one of the world’s largest makers of chips and smartphones.
Like other South Korean family conglomerates, Samsung has been credited with helping propel the country’s economy to one of the largest in the world since the fall of the 1950-53 Korean War. But their opaque property structures and often corrupt ties with bureaucrats and government officials have been seen as a hotbed of corruption in South Korea.
Although he never admitted to committing legal wrongdoing, Lee expressed remorse over the “public concern” about the corruption scandal and worked to improve Samsung’s public image. He said the inheritance transfers to Samsung would end, promising that the management rights he inherited from his father would not be passed on to his children. He also said that Samsung will stop suppressing employees’ attempts to organize unions, although working activists have questioned its sincerity.
It is not clear immediately what his term of imprisonment would mean for Samsung’s business. Samsung showed no specific signs of trouble when Lee was in prison in 2017 and 2018. Prison conditions have never really stopped Korean corporate leaders from passing on their business decisions behind bars.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court upheld a 20-year prison sentence for Park for the Samsung case and other bribery and extortion while in office from 2013 to 2016.