South Korea’s president will formally pardon Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong, one year after he was released on parole from a prison sentence for bribing former President Park Geun-hye as part of the massive corruption scandal that toppled Park’s government
Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin and two other top business leaders will be pardoned as well, extending South Korea’s history of leniency toward convicted business tycoons and major white-collar crimes. They are among some 1,700 people President Yoon Suk Yeol will pardon on Monday, a national holiday celebrating Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II.
Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon said the pardons of the business tycoons were aimed at “overcoming the economic crisis through encouraging business activity.” Yoon earlier told reporters that his pardons could help create “breathing room” for struggling domestic livelihoods. Lee, 54, runs thein his capacity as vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, one of the world’s largest makers of computer memory chips and smartphones.
Lee still faces a separate trial on charges of stock price manipulation and auditing violations related to the 2015 merger. But recent opinion polls have indicated South Koreans – years removed from the angry protests in late 2016 and 2017 that– largely favored granting Lee a pardon, reflecting Samsung’s influence in a country where it provides smartphones, TVs and credit-cards people use, the apartments they live in and the hospitals where they are born or go to die.
She faced a prison term of more than two decades before Moon pardoned her in December, citing a need to promote unity in the politically divided nation. Choi remains in jail. Chang was released on parole in 2018 with about six months left on a 3 1/2-year prison term over charges that he embezzled millions of dollars in corporate funds and used some of it to gamble in Las Vegas.
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