A South Korean court recently sentenced Samsung’s billionaire vice-chairman and potential heir, Lee Jae-yong, to 2.5 years in prison. He was found guilty of offering bribes to the former president of the country besides other crimes.
The news also points out that Lee has also been previously convicted of the crimes of embezzlement, hiding assets abroad, concealing the benefits of criminal acts, and committing acts of perjury.
Jae-Yong was convicted of bribing the former president of his country, Park Geun-hye and one of his assistants, to obtain government support for a merger between two Samsung subsidiaries, a move that increased his control over the conglomerate. He is the billionaire son of Samsung president Lee Kun-hee, who died in October.
This is not the first bribery case in Samsung
The origins of this case go back a few years. Initially, Lee Jae-yong was sentenced to five years in prison in 2017 by a district court, accused of the same charges. He was then released in 2018, after a two-and-a-half-year suspension of his sentence was issued by an appeals court.
In 2019, the South Korean Supreme Court ordered the case to be reopened with a new trial, believing that the appeals court had wrongly dismissed some of the charges against Lee.
The bribes issued by Lee Jae-yong consisted of three horses and other favors given by his executives and Samsung to former President Park, amounting to more than $7 million.
At the beginning of a new stage with this trial, Lee’s lawyers founded their defense highlighting their effort and Samsung’s to stick to the law, forming a compliance committee.
Despite that initiative, the Seoul High Court questioned the effectiveness of such a committee, commenting that it was not a determining factor during their decision-making process.
One of the last consequences of this legal episode was known in May last year, when the vice-chairman of Samsung publicly apologized at a press point for his conglomerate’s involvement in the scandal, acknowledging that the unethical activity charges against him were caused by a “succession problem” and promising to focus his efforts on strategies to increase the company’s value.
Lee Jae-yong, Samsung’s heir, sentenced to 2.5 years in prison
Samsung’s vice-chairman sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for bribery, he is also being tried for allegedly manipulating share prices during the merger of Samsung’s two subsidiaries, a case that directly involves him.
For his part, former President Park, also involved in this case, is serving a cumulative sentence of 20 years in prison, for cases of corruption and political responsibility.
For Samsung, this situation implies a major setback. Following the re-incarceration of its vice president, the executive management was relieved by an interim board. Samsung Electronics shares fell by 3.4% after the court verdict was announced.