Samsung leader gets prison time
He receives a 5-year sentence in a scandal involving South Korea’s ex-president.
SEOUL — South Korea has been described as the “Republic of Samsung,” a play on the nation’s formal name, because of the business empire’s ubiquity in daily life here and its dominance in the national economy.
But that power and reach weren’t evident in a Seoul courtroom on Friday.
Lee Jae-yong, Samsung’s de facto leader and the grandson of the corporate giant’s late founder, received a five-year prison term for a bribery and embezzlement scheme involving the country’s disgraced former president, Park Geun-hye.
It was the latest and most high-profile conviction to date in South Korea’s sprawling public corruption scandal, a verdict that — for now, at least — raised questions about who will lead South Korea’s top familycontrolled conglomerate, which has played a key role in the nation’s emergence as an economic powerhouse since the Korean War.
“This could get very messy for Samsung but also the Korean economy as a whole,” said Sangin Park, an economics professor who directs the Research Center for Market and Government at Seoul National University.
The conviction of Lee, 49, follows an intermittent, months-long trial that has riveted democratic South Korea, where many residents encounter Samsung smartphones, insurance and healthcare — among numerous other products — every day.
The court’s decision found Lee complicit in millions of dollars in bribes in a scheme involving Park, her longtime confidant and a onetime elite South Korean equestrian athlete.
The judge in the case said prosecutors had substantial evidence to show that Lee, a mild-mannered, low-profile executive, facilitated the purchase of an expensive horse and provided other corporate funds in an effort to curry favor with Park. The court agreed with prosecutors who argued the scheme was employed to secure government support for a controversial merger between two Samsung affiliates.
The scheme was also seen as an effort by some inside Samsung to cement a dynastic path for Lee to control the larger group, well known for smartphones and semiconductors, but which also has a hand in pharmaceuticals and shipbuilding, among other global businesses.
His defense lawyer, Wucheol Song, in a statement released through the company, disputed the verdict, which also affected other current and former Samsung officials accused in the case.
“We will appeal immediately,” he said. “I am confident that the appeals court will definitely find the defendants not guilty on all counts.”
Lee’s trial has dragged on for months during which he has remained in jail despite his power and billionaire status.
While questioning witnesses this month, Lee’s defense sought to portray him as detached from Samsung’s day-to-day operations and unaware of the nation’s political machinery.
Lee expressed contrition without admitting wrongdoing, testifying that he rarely read South Korean news, focusing instead on American and Japanese outlets for his information. He also said he knew little about the merger deal at the center of the allegations against him and the former president.
The court apparently disagreed.
The verdict comes months after the dramatic and historic downfall of Park, who began to lose her grip on power last fall amid revelations that she allowed a confidant outside the government, Choi Soon-sil, to gain access to confidential documents.
The case quickly snowballed into an investigation into whether Choi, with the president’s support, received payments from large companies.
The prosecutors say that it was Choi who received the bribes from Samsung officials to benefit a sports firm and her daughter’s equestrian career.
Dissatisfaction with Park’s leadership led to mass street protests in the spring and eventually charges against two dozen people, including a former Park aide.
The National Assembly voted to impeach Park in December, and a court removed her in March.
The former president, the daughter of a late military dictator, has since been jailed and charged. Her own trial is expected to end this fall; she too faces prison time.