Issued on: 12/08/2022 – 10:08
The heir and de facto leader of the Samsung group received a presidential pardon on Friday, continuing South Korea’s long tradition of releasing business leaders convicted of corruption on economic grounds.
Billionaire Lee Jae-yong, convicted of bribery and embezzlement last January, will be “recovered” to give him a chance to “help overcome the country’s economic crisis,” Justice Minister Han said Dong-hoon.
Lee — who has a net worth of $7.9 billion, according to Forbes — was released on parole in August 2021, after 18 months in prison, just over half his original sentence.
Friday’s pardon will allow him to return to full-time employment with a lifting of an employment restriction after the five-year prison term.
“As a result of the global economic crisis, the dynamism and vitality of the national economy has deteriorated and it is feared that the economic slump will continue,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
The pardon was granted so that Lee — as well as other top executives who were pardoned Friday — could “lead the engine of the country’s continued growth through active investment in technology and job creation,” it added.
Three other prominent business executives were also pardoned, including Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin, who was sentenced to two and a half years in jail in 2018 in a bribery case.
A total of 1,693 people — including prisoners with terminal illnesses and those nearing the end of their terms — were on the pardon list, the ministry said ahead of Monday’s annual Liberation Day commemoration.
The anniversary marks Japan’s 1945 surrender during World War II, which liberated Korea from decades of colonial rule and is celebrated each year with the grace of hundreds of prisoners.
Lee, 54, released a statement after the pardon was announced, saying he wanted to contribute to the economy through continued investment and job creation for young people.
Above the law?
Lee is the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest smartphone maker. The conglomerate’s total revenue is equivalent to about one-fifth of South Korea’s gross domestic product.
He was jailed for crimes related to a massive corruption scandal that toppled former President Park Geun-hye.
There is a long history of South Korean tycoons being accused of bribery, embezzlement, tax evasion or other offences.
But many of those convicted were subsequently reduced or suspended on appeal, and some – including the late Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee, who was convicted twice – were given presidential pardons in recognition of their “contribution to the national economy”.
The giant Samsung group is by far the largest of the family-controlled empires known as chaebol that dominate business in South Korea.
President Yoon Suk-yeol said Friday the pardon was intended to improve the lot of “ordinary people affected by the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic”.
But analysts said they simply made big businessmen feel that they were “not limited by legal norms,” Vladimir Tikhonov, a professor of Korean studies at the University of Oslo, told AFP.
Former Conservative President Lee Myung-bak, who is currently serving a jail term for corruption and was initially expected to benefit from the pardon, was not on the list.
Justice Minister Han said all politicians were excluded this time because the economy is the most “urgent and important” issue.
Local reports speculate that pardoning Lee Myung-bak would have been too risky for President Yoon, who is already struggling with record-low approval ratings.
More legal woes
Lee Jae-yong is still facing separate lawsuit over accounting fraud allegations related to a 2015 merger of two Samsung companies.
In May, he was cleared of a hearing in that trial to receive US President Joe Biden as he embarked on a tour of South Korea by visiting Samsung’s chip factory with President Yoon.
Its grace follows Samsung with unveiling a massive investment blueprint of 450 trillion won ($346 billion) over the next five years, with the goal of making it a leader in sectors from semiconductors to biological products and creating 80,000 new jobs.
But Lee’s jail time didn’t hinder the company’s performance — it announced a more than 70 percent increase in second-quarter profits in July last year, with a coronavirus-driven shift to remote work driving demand. to devices that use its memory chips.
“Samsung has functioned perfectly without mercy,” Tikhonov told AFP.
“The pardon weakens the rule of law, which is in fact more disadvantageous than beneficial.”
(AFP)