SOUTH KOREA, SEOUL — The justice minister stated Friday that South Korea’s president will pardon Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong, who served a year of his sentence for bribing former President Park Guen-Hye as part of the major corruption scandal that brought Park’s administration down.
Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin and two other top business executives will also be pardoned, extending South Korea’s track record of compassion toward convicted corporate tycoons and significant white-collar criminals. They are among around 1,700 persons. Monday, a national holiday commemorating Korea’s freedom from Japanese colonial authority at the end of World War II, will be pardoned by President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Lee’s pardon, one year after he was freed on parole, demonstrates Samsung’s enormous clout in a country that relies on technological exports. He was found guilty of paying Park and a close ally, both of whom were given to longer jail sentences, in order to get government approval for a 2015 merger between two Samsung affiliates that strengthened Lee’s grip on the business empire.
Shin received a suspended jail sentence in 2018 for bribing Park, whom then-President Moon Jae-in pardoned in December. Chang Sae-joo, head of Dongkuk Steel Mill, and former STX Group Chairman Kang Duk-soo are among the other corporate titans to be pardoned.
The pardons of business tycoons, according to Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon, are intended at “overcoming the economic crisis by promoting corporate activity.” Yoon previously told reporters that his pardons might assist provide struggling domestic livelihoods “breathing room.”
Lee, 54, is the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, one of the world’s top manufacturers of computer memory chips and cellphones. He had a year left on his 30-month sentence when Moon’s government released him on parole in August of last year, citing unnamed concerns about the economy and the COVID-19 outbreak.
Lee expressed his genuine thanks for “getting an opportunity to start over” in a statement provided through Samsung.
“I’d want to apologise for generating concern for so many individuals as a result of my faults.” “As a businessperson, I will work even harder to fulfil my responsibilities and duties,” Lee stated.
Lee is still on trial for stock price manipulation and accounting irregularities relating to the 2015 transaction.
Opinion polls show that South Koreans – years removed from the angry protests that ousted Park from office in late 2016 and 2017 – overwhelmingly support granting Lee a pardon, reflecting Samsung’s clout in a country where it provides smartphones, TVs, and credit cards, as well as the apartments people live in and the hospitals where they are born or die.
According to critics, Lee has always been in charge of Samsung, even while incarcerated, and has mostly resumed his managerial duties upon his release. Former Justice Minister Park Beom-kye, who served in the Moon administration, justified Lee’s engagement in Samsung management following his parole, claiming that his activities did not violate the five-year restriction because the wealthy heir was not paid by Samsung.
Park Geun-hye was found guilty of a variety of corruption charges, including conspiring with her longtime confidante, Choi Soon-sil, to accept millions of dollars in bribes and extortion from Samsung and other big corporations while she was in government.
She faced a prison term of more than two decades before Moon pardoned her in December, citing a n
She faced more than two decades in prison when Moon pardoned her in December, citing the need to foster unity in the politically divided country. Choi is still imprisoned.
Last year, the South Korean Supreme Court upheld Kang’s suspended jail term on allegations of embezzling business cash and other offences.
eed to promote unity in the politically divided nation. Choi remains in jail.
Chang was released on parole in 2018 with about six months left on a 3 1/2 year prison term over charges that he embezzled millions of dollars in corporate funds and used some of it to gamble in Las Vegas.
South Korea’s Supreme Court last year confirmed a suspended prison sentence for Kang, who headed STX from 2003-14, on charges of embezzling corporate funds and other crimes.
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