A South Korean court has found Lee Jae-yong,
the de facto chief of the sprawling Samsung
business empire, guilty of bribery and other
corruption charges.
Lee, the billionaire son of Samsung's ailing
chairman, was sentenced to five years in
prison on Friday, well short of the 12-year
sentence prosecutors had sought.
The criminal conviction is a blow for Samsung,
the world's largest smartphone maker and
South Korea's biggest family-run
conglomerate whose businesses are estimated
to account for around 15% of the country's
entire economy.
The so-called "trial of the century" has gripped
South Korea for months. It's part of a huge
influence-peddling scandal that brought down
the government of former President Park
Geun-hye .
"The public is disappointed that this kind of
large-scale crime caused by cozy relations
between politics and business still happens --
it's not in the past but remains a reality,"
Judge Kim Jin-dong said in court. He also
laid some of the blame on Park, saying the
former president made "aggressive demands"
of Samsung.
Wearing a navy suit and holding a manila
envelope, Lee remained seated and silent as
the judge read out the verdict.
He was found guilty of bribing Park in
exchange for government support for a merger
that helped him tighten control over Samsung.
The 49-year-old executive, who is also known
as Jay Y. Lee, has been the de facto leader of
Samsung since his ailing father was left
incapacitated by a 2014 heart attack.
The court also found Lee guilty of perjury,
concealing criminal profits, embezzlement and
hiding assets overseas. Lee has denied any
wrongdoing, and his lawyers said Friday they
reject the court's decision and will appeal
immediately.
Prosecutors presented Lee as a savvy tycoon
who knew exactly what he was doing when
Samsung paid tens of millions of dollars to
entities linked to a confidante of Park in order
to win government backing for the key merger.
The conviction caps a rocky 12 months for
Samsung, beginning with the embarrassing
fiasco over its fire-prone Galaxy Note 7
smartphone last fall.
Samsung Electronics' (SSNLF ) shares closed
down 1.1% in Seoul following the verdict
Friday. But the stock is still not far below the
record high it hit last month.
And although the guilty verdict is a black
mark on Samsung's reputation, analysts said
Lee's prison sentence is unlikely to affect the
tech giant's day-to-day operations
. The company has continued to post strong
profits since he was first detained in the case.
Lee is following in the footsteps of many other
chiefs of South Korea's big family-run
conglomerates, known as chaebol. His father,
Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee, was twice
sentenced to prison -- and twice pardoned.
Serving jail time "is like a rite of passage,"
David Kang, director of the University of
Southern California's Korean Studies Institute,
said in an interview before the verdict was
announced. "The question will really be how
long does he serve."
Newly elected President Moon Jae-in
campaigned as a "clean" candidate , promising
to crack down on the power of the chaebol.
The question is whether he'll eventually
pardon Lee.
On his first trip to the U.S. earlier this year,
Moon was accompanied by about 50 South
Korean business leaders, including executives
from Samsung and other major
conglomerates.
Moon's administration "is just going to work
with these companies," Kang said. "So how
different is it really going to be?"
A spokesman for Moon said Friday that he
hoped Lee's case would be "an opportunity to
eradicate the longstanding cozy relations
between politics and business, which have
been an obstacle to further advancing our
society."
Four other former Samsung executives were
also found guilty of bribery and other
corruption charges at the trial, receiving
prison sentences ranging from two and a half
to four years. Two of them had their sentences
suspended.
They are also all appealing their convictions.
Source: bbc
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