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Former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison for various allegations of corruption.
Lee was also fined nearly $ 11.5 million.
He allegedly took several million dollars in bribes from Samsung and other companies while he was in office, and allegedly hijacked nearly $ 35 million from a company he was involved with.
Prosecutors initially sought a 20-year prison sentence for his illegal activities.
Lee denied all the wrongdoing and called the case "political revenge". He has been in detention since 23 March.
Lee is the fourth South Korean leader to be sentenced to prison after leaving the leadership position.
Break the verdict
During the televised televised session of nearly 90 minutes, the court ruled that former president Lee was the de facto owner of his brother's company, DAS. The court ruled that Lee ordered his officials to create a slush fund and take part in accounting irregularities. Lee was long suspected of being the owner of DAS, the company at the center of the scandal that led to the imprisonment.
Lee was also found guilty of accepting a $ 5.85 million payment from Samsung Electronics Company. The court ruled that the purpose of the funds was to implement a leniency measure in order to open an investigation into a tax fraud against its chairman, Lee Kun-hee .
The Seoul Central District Court has found Lee only responsible for about $ 21.7 million of misappropriated funds, citing lack of evidence of the prosecution for the $ 35 million.
Lee was not present in the hearing room on Friday when the sentence was read as a protest against the live pursuit on television.
Lee Ju-hyun contributed to this report.
