Ex-president’s friend jailed in SoKor scandal
SEOUL (Reuters) — The friend of former South Korean leader Park Geun-hye who was at the center of an influencepeddling scandal that rocked the country’s business and political elite has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, a Seoul court said yesterday.
The court also sentenced the chairman of the Lotte Group, the country’s fifth-largest conglomerate, to two years and six months in prison in the same case.
Choi Soon-sil, a confidante of Park, was convicted of receiving bribes from South Korean conglomerates, including Samsung, the world’s biggest maker of smartphones and semiconductors, and the Lotte Group.
Park was dismissed from the presidency last March after being impeached and standing trial separately on charges of bribery, abuse of power and coercion. She denies any wrongdoing.
Lotte chairman Shin Dongbin was in court at the time of the verdict and was taken into custody.
“His act crushed the hopes and faith of the community and the people... Giving bribes hurts the fairness of society,” said Kim Se-yun, the presiding judge.
Shin’s arrest creates a leadership vacuum at Lotte, a retail-to-chemicals giant with $102-billion worth of assets, as it navigates mounting losses at its China operations.
The verdict comes at a time when Lotte, a sponsor of the Winter Olympics currently on in South Korea, had stepped up marketing in a bid to promote its brand and boost sales.