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Samsung vice-president Jay Y. Lee may be going back to prison after a South Korean court convicted him of bribery Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. He was sentenced to serve two and a half years in prison for bribing former Korean president Park Geun-Hye to win his support for Samsung’s 2015 merger of two affiliates.
This verdict comes after Lee was released on appeal after serving 11 months on a five-year sentence in 2018. His time in jail will count towards his new sentence of two and a half years.
After his conviction Monday, Samsung Electronics’ Korea-listed stock prices dropped 3.4 percent.
When handing down his judgment in the case, Judge Jeong Jun-Yeong made aware Lee being open to improving compliance at Samsung and his pledge to create a transparent company.
The judge said:
Despite some shortcomings… I hope that over time, it will be evaluated as a milestone in the history of Korean companies as a beginning for compliance and ethics.
Also, the sentencing of Lee was based upon the court’s evaluation of an independent compliance committee put in place by Samsung to monitor executive’s corporate activities. Lee will not be able to make major decisions for Samsung while in jail.
This is a very decisive time for Samsung when the demand for memory chips and other products is at an all-time high. Samsung has grown in popularity of late because of rough relations between the US and China. Lee is still expected to become Samsung chairman once he gets out of jail, following the death of his father Lee Kun-hee late last year.
Written by Omari Jahi
Sources:
Fox Business: Samsung heir Jay Y. Lee likely headed back to prison in a corruption scandal, Noah Manskar
Yahoo! News: Samsung heir Jay Y. Lee is going back to jail for bribery, Steve Dent
Pro Pakistani: Samsung’s Vice President Jay Y. Lee is Going back to Jail for 2.5 Years, Mahnoor Nadeem
Featured Image by Dmitrijs Purgalvis Courtesy of Wikimedia – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Kim Daram’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
