Seoul: South Korea will release the Samsung Scion Lee Jae-Yong billionaire on parole this week after he spent 18 months in prison for his role in a massive corruption scandal that triggered national protests and leads to the overthrow of the previous President of the President.
The announcement Monday by the Ministry of Justice, which came with one year remaining in the 30-month sentence Lee, expanded the history of the punishment of large white collar crimes and special treatment for the convicted tycoon.
It tarnished the reformist image of President Moon Jae-In, which after winning the Presidential Election in 2017 vowed to curb excess `chaebol, ‘conglomerates belonging to the South Korean family, and end their comfortable bonds with the government.
Lee, who has been imprisoned since January, runs the Samsung Group in his capacity as Deputy Chair of Samsung Electronics, one of the largest computer memory chip and smartphone chip makers in the world.
He was convicted of bribing – President Park Geun-Hye and nearby Confidante, who presented a long prison term, to win government support for the 2015 merger between two Samsung affiliates which tightened control of the company’s imperial.