Crown Prince pardoned

Lee Jaw-Yong, Samsung heir, convicted of bribery and embezzlement in 2017 – has been granted a special presidential pardon. Lee was twice imprisoned for bribing a former president. South Korea’s government justified the move, saying the de-facto leader of the country’s biggest company was needed back at the helm to spearhead economic recovery post-pandemic.

Lee’s crimes were tied up in the corruption scandal that led to the imprisonment of former president Park Geun-Hye, in office from 2013-2017. The Crown Prince paid £6.6million ($ 8 million) in bribes to President Park and her associates to secure support for a merger opposed by shareholders that would shore up the control of his family empire. South Korea’s parliament impeached Park and she was imprisoned in 2017 for 25 years Lee was jailed a year later for offences including embezzling company funds to buy a £650, 000 ($800,000) horse for the president’s friend’s daughter.

A new president, Moon Jae-in swept into office with a mandate to clean up the mess, but failed to make much headway in his last days as president, he granted a pardon to his predecessor. Eight months later under another new president, Samsung’s chief also received the same clemency.

Lee’s case reaffirms the conception that business leaders are untouchable and above the law. In Korea, giant conglomerates including Samsung, the biggest and most powerful of them, dominate the economy of South Korea, with the top 10 accounting for about 80 per cent of GDP known as Chaebols, they are family-controlled empires that provide a span of services. LG, Hyundai, Lotte, and SK are among them. As the world’s largest smartphone maker, it’s a global electronics brand, but at home, it does hospitals, hotels, insurance plans, billboards, shipyards, and even theme parks

Chaebols were heavily supported by the government, after the Korean War, as they were given cheaper electricity and tax incentives, there was a “Buy Korea” policy even helped in suppressing union movements, crushing the competition.

Lee’s father, Lee Kun-hee was convicted of bribery and fraud in the 1990s when he was Samsung chairman. But did not serve a single day of jail time.

Although Lee still faces criminal allegations of rigging company valuations, accounting fraud, and making Samsung business decisions in breach of his sentence conditions, his clemency means he will be able to fully resume his executive responsibilities.