Court releases convicted Samsung CEO immediately

A South Korean court has released Samsung CEO Lee Jae-yong. The court imposed a ‘conditional prison sentence’ on the presumably next CEO of the group, while a lower court had imposed an unconditional sentence.

Lee is now being released immediately after serving nearly a year in prison, Bloomberg reports. The Samsung CEO had appealed the five-year prison sentence he received last year for bribery. The judge converted that into the South Korean version of a 2.5-year suspended sentence, with a four-year probation period.

Via dubious foundations and front men, the CEO is said to have paid a EUR 34 million bribe to former South Korean President Park Geun-hye. That would have happened in exchange for support with business deals.

Lee is the grandson of the founder of Samsung. His father, Lee Kun Hee, is officially the head of Samsung, but has been in hospital since 2014, which meant that the now convicted CEO actually ran the company for three years. Lee has been incarcerated since March last year.

The judge took into account that the president had to persuade the Samsung CEO to participate in the bribery. “The essence of this case is that Lee responded passively to political power,” the judge said. It is unknown if and when the CEO will return to Samsung.