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The Samsung logo on one of the South Korean company’s offices in Gangnam, central Seoul. (iStock)
The jailed de facto leader of the giant Samsung group was paroled Friday, the latest example in South Korea’s long tradition of freeing business leaders jailed for bribery or tax evasion for economic reasons.
Lee Jae-yong, the 202nd richest person in the world according to Forbes, with a net worth of $ 11.4 billion was serving a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence in January for bribery, embezzlement and other offenses in link to the corruption scandal that brought down former South Korean President Park Geun-hye.
But calls for his early release from politicians and business leaders have escalated in recent months over what they have claimed to be a possible leadership vacuum in the Southern’s largest conglomerate.
The Justice Department announced on Monday that he had been released on parole, among around 800 early releases, citing concerns about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy.
Lee, 53, bowed to reporters waiting outside a detention center in south Seoul and told them, “I have caused people too much concern. I am really sorry.
Dressed in a black suit, he added: “I listen carefully to your worries, criticisms, worries and high expectations for me. I will do my best,” before he was whisked away in a black limousine.
Lee was first jailed for five years in 2017, after Park’s ouster, and was released the following year when an appeals court dismissed most of his bribery convictions and convicted him to a suspended sentence.
But the Supreme Court later ordered Lee to stand a new trial, which convicted and jailed him again.
His parole is not the end of his legal difficulties as he is still on trial for an alleged manipulation of actions which effectively facilitated his path to take control of the family conglomerate, the same goal for which he was convicted of ‘bribing Park.
Song Won-keun, professor of economics at Gyeongsang National University, told AFP that this was undoubtedly preferential treatment, especially since a separate trial is still pending.
There is a long history of great South Korean tycoons accused of corruption, embezzlement, tax evasion or other offenses.
But many of those convicted subsequently had their sentences reduced or suspended on appeal, some (including Lee’s father, the late Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee, who was twice sentenced) received presidential pardons in recognition of their “contribution to the national economy”.
The presidential Blue House insisted that Lee’s parole was a decision “made in the national interest.”
“We hope that our fellow citizens will also be able to understand,” an official of the Maison Bleue told reporters.
According to data from the Department of Justice, only around 0.3% of all convicts who were released on parole from 2011 to 2020 served less than 70% of their prison sentence.
But a rule change recently came into effect, reducing the proportion of their sentences that inmates must serve before being eligible for parole to 60%, a mark Lee surpassed a few weeks ago.
The giant Samsung group is by far the largest of the family empires known as the chaebols that dominate business in South Korea, the world’s 12th largest economy. Its flagship subsidiary Samsung Electronics, of which Lee is vice president, is the world’s largest smartphone maker.
A spokesperson for the company declined to comment on his release.
Lee’s imprisonment has not been an obstacle to the performance of the company. Samsung announced a more than 70% increase in second-quarter profits last month, with work from home driven by coronaviruses increasing demand for devices using its memory chips.
Chaebol families often have only a small stake in their empires, but retain control through complex networks of cross-ownership between units.
Lee vowed last year to end the family succession within the company, saying he would not pass on his role to his children as he bowed to apologize for multiple controversies.
Regardless of the controversies, the leaders of the country’s four major conglomerates, SK Group, Hyundai Motor Group, LG Group and Samsung, met with President Moon Jae-in in June to urge him to pardon Lee.
Polls also showed that a growing number of South Koreans were in favor of being granted parole, with support from over 66% of those polled in a recent Realmeter poll.
But Vladimir Tikhonov, professor of Korean studies at the University of Oslo, took a different point of view.
“Releasing him does not follow normal law enforcement practices and suggests that his wealth could have been a factor,” he told AFP.
“It’s a departure from the idea that everyone is equal before the law.”
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