SAMSUNG HEIR GIVEN FIVE-YEAR PRISON TERM

Jay Y Lee is set to spend the next five years in prison, one of the harshest sentences handed to a South Korean chaebol executive, after a court convicted him of bribing his way to greater control of the Samsung empire his family founded.

The trial, part of a bigger corruption scandal that brought down South Korea’s president, transfixed the nation as it shone a spotlight on the close ties between chaebol business groups and the political elite. Prosecutors had sought 12 years in prison for the 49-year-old billionaire, whose lawyer said he would appeal. Any sentence of more than 3 years can’t be suspended.

The judgment reflects a greater willingness by South Korea to break the ties between the wealthy and those in power. In the past, a long list of business leaders, including Lee’s father, were convicted for corrupt behaviour only to be let off easy.

The younger Lee is unlikely to enjoy such leniency. The Samsung scion, who golfed and travelled extensively to foster ties with tech executives, mostly kept a blank expression as the verdict was read.

“It’s shocking that the disease of political-business collusion between Korea’s most powerful person, the president, and a conglomerate is not a thing of the past but still continuing,” presiding judge Kim Jin-dong told the Seoul Central District Court on Friday. “It will be hard to recover from this loss of faith.

The fact that the defendants were executives who represented Samsung Group makes the influence on the society and economy hugely adverse.” Lee was convicted of all five charges he faced, including allegations of embezzlement. While the ruling casts doubt over Lee’s return to the conglomerate his grandfather founded almost 80 years ago, the business is doing well, with Samsung Electronics posting record earnings and its shares rising 30 per cent this year, outperforming the benchmark Kospi.

Controlled by the Lee family through a web of cross-holdings, Samsung is South Korea’s biggest conglomerate, comprised of about 60 units selling life insurance, cargo ships and clothes. The empire has a market capitalisation of about $395 billion, and Samsung Electronics makes up most of that. It is the world’s biggest maker of smartphones and memory chips, with customers including Apple, Walmart Stores and Microsoft.

The guilty verdict immediately removes the public face of Samsung, which could make it harder for the company to do business in some cases, according to Paul Swiercz, professor of management at George Washington University. “It will be more difficult for Samsung to negotiate the transnational deals with its present and future global partners,” Swiercz said.

Along with Lee’s sentencing, several former executives were convicted Friday. Former Samsung Corporate Strategy Office chief Choi Geesung and former President Chang Choong-ki were each sentenced to four years in prison, while two other executives got suspended prison terms.

The younger Lee’s absence could lead to further empowerment of managers such as Vice Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun, who oversees semiconductors; President J K Shin, who is in charge of mobile products; and President Yoon Bookeun, who runs the consumer appliances business.