LEE JAE-YONG RECEIVES 30-MONTH PRISON TERM IN CORRUPTION RETRIAL

Karimi & Associates Law Firm presents according to euro news:

A South Korean court sentenced billionaire Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong back to prison to 30 months over his involvement in a 2016 corruption scandal that brought down former President Park Guen-hye.

Lee was found guilty by the Seoul High Court for bribing then-President Park Geun-hye and her close confidante to win government support for a 2015 merger between two Samsung affiliates that helped strengthen his control of the country’s largest business group.

Lee “actively provided bribes and implicitly asked the president to use her power to help his smooth succession” at Samsung, the Seoul court said in its verdict.

Lee, was originally sentenced in 2017 to five years in prison for offering 8.6 billion won (€6.4 million) in bribes to Park and her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil. But he was freed after 11 months in February 2018 after the Seoul High Court reduced his term to two and a half years and suspended his sentence.

The Supreme Court last week confirmed a 20-year prison sentence for former President Park, who was convicted of colluding with Choi to take millions of dollars in bribes and extortion money from some of the country’s largest business groups, including Samsung, while she was in office from 2013 to 2016.