Samsung’s top leader Lee Jae-yong has been sentenced to two and a half years over his bribery corruption scandal on Monday. The Samsung heir was jailed for bribing South Korea’s former president, Park Geun-hye.
Mr. Lee’s case can still go to the Supreme Court if either Mr. Lee or prosecutors want to take it there.
Lee was earlier sentenced to five years in jail in the bribery case; however, an appeals court had dismissed most of the charges and suspended sentence in 2018.
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The Supreme Court back in August 2019 had ordered the appellate court to review its suspended jail sentence for Lee, saying that it had underestimated the amount of bribes Mr. Lee paid to Ms. Park and her secretive confidante, Choi Soon-sil, while Ms. Park was in power. It said the amount should be 8.6 billion won ($7.8 million), not 3.6 billion, as the lower court had found.
On Monday, Seoul High Court accepted 8.6 billion won as the correct amount, as instructed by the Supreme Court in its ruling.
Notably, the corruption investigation was lead by Kim Jin-wook, who was nominated by the President Moon Jae-in.
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Lee, aged 52, is expected to spend only one and half year in prison as he has already spent one year in jail after he was arrested by prosecutors in 2017 in connection to the bribery case.
Samsung Electronics shares fell more than 4% after the sentence before they began to recover.
In May last year, Lee had confirmed that his children would not be handed over management rights which is a departure from the family tradition. He has also apologized for his executives’ behaviour who were caught sabotaging labour union activities, according to Reuters.
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.
