Billionaire Samsung Heir Jay Y. Lee Gets 2.5 Years In Prison For Bribery

Billionaire Samsung heir Jay Y. Lee gets 2.5 years in prison for bribery.

Samsung Electronics Co. heir Jay Y. Lee has been sentenced to two years and six months in prison over bribery charges, concluding a years-long graft trial that inflamed outrage over the cosy relationships between government and business.

The sentencing lands the top decision-maker at the world’s biggest electronics company behind bars at a time of unprecedented global uncertainty. The Seoul High Court first jailed Lee in 2017 after convicting the billionaire for his role in a corruption scandal that toppled former president Park Geun-Hye.

The Samsung Group’s de facto leader served a year in prison but was released in February 2018 after his original five-year term was halved and suspended- the Supreme Court overturned that verdict and ordered a retrial in 2019.

Lee, 52, has been embroiled in a legal fight that started four years ago and stemmed from a controversial merger in 2015. The Samsung executive was accused of offering horses and other payments to a friend of the former president to win support for his formal succession at the corporation. The Supreme Court upheld a 20-year prison term for Park last week, citing wide-ranging charges including bribery related to Samsung.

Shares of Samsung Electronics fell nearly 4% after the sentence was read out loud.

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