Billionaire Samsung successor convicted in temptation liaison that brought down president
The billionaire conduct of South Korea’s Samsung Group, Jay Y. Lee, was jailed for 5 years for temptation on Friday after a six-month hearing over a liaison that brought down a president.
Lee had paid bribes in expectation of favours from afterwards boss Park Geun-hye, according to a landmark statute by a Seoul court, that also found him guilty of stealing resources abroad, piracy and perjury.
Lee, a 49-year-old successor to one of a world’s biggest corporate empires, has been hold given Feb on charges that he bribed Park to assistance secure control of a firm that owns Samsung Electronics, a world’s heading smartphone and chip maker, and has interests trimming from curative drugs and home appliances to word and hotels.
Samsung Electronics did not have any evident comment.
During a trial, Samsung concurred it offering to present about $48 million Cdn to entities corroborated by Park’s tie friend, Choi Soon-sil, including $7.5 million to unite a equestrian career of Choi’s daughter. In lapse for a contributions, prosecutors say, Samsung sought supervision support for a argumentative 2015 partnership of dual of a affiliates, that helped tie Lee’s control over a conglomerate.
Lee denied wrongdoing. One of his lawyers, Song Wu-cheol, pronounced Lee would interest a reduce justice ruling.
“The whole outcome is unacceptable,” Song said, adding that he was assured his client’s ignorance would be endorsed by a aloft court.
Under South Korean law, sentences of some-more than 3 years can not be suspended. The 5 year-sentence is one of a longest jail terms given to a South Korean business leader.
Park is confronting her possess crime trial, with a statute approaching after this year. Prosecutors have argued that Park and Lee dual took partial in a same act of temptation so Lee’s self-assurance would seem meaningful for Park.
Ouster former boss Park Geun-hye faces her possess crime trial, with a outcome approaching after this year. (Kim Jong-Ji/Reuters)
Hundreds of rowdy, doctrinaire Park supporters rallied outward a justice progressing in a day to direct Lee’s acquittal.
Samsung, founded in 1938 by Lee’s grandfather, is a domicile name in South Korea and a pitch of a country’s thespian arise from misery following a 1950-53 Korean War. But over a years, it has also come to shorten a cosy ties between politicians and absolute family-controlled business groups that have been concerned in a array of crime scandals.
South Koreans, who once applauded a groups for moving a nation into a tellurian mercantile power, now impugn them for holding behind a economy and squeezing smaller businesses.
South Korea’s new president, Moon Jae-in, who transposed a Park after a May 9 election, has affianced to rein in a chaebols, commission minority shareholders and finish a use of pardoning corporate tycoons convicted of white-collar crime.
Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/jay-lee-samsung-heir-bribery-moon-1.4261831?cmp=rss