Korea Where The Guilty Skip Jail – US-FOREX.US
HONG KONG -
Once again, South Korea showed the world that its judicial system seems to favor protecting influential billionaires over safeguarding stockholders.
Former Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee was found guilty on Friday of breach of trust for illegally transferring below-market-price bonds to his children. The deal caused huge monetary losses to a Samsung affiliate.
The Seoul High Court talked tough: it sentenced Lee to three years in prison and fined him 110 billion won .But then the judge granted Lee a five-year suspended sentence. In other words, as long as Lee doesn’t get into any legal trouble in the next five years, he can skip jail and continue his tycoon life.
The 67-year old Lee appeared at the court on Friday on the charge of breach of trust over his decision to order Samsung SDS, a subsidiary of the Samsung Group specializing in system integration, to issue bonds with warrants to his son and daughters at a huge discount in 1999. The move cost Samsung Group 22.7 billion won .
Lee was retried for the same charge after he was indicted last year for causing huge losses to Samsung SDS in the 1999 bond deals, but the lower courts found him not guilty at that time.
The Supreme Court in May this year ordered a review of the initial verdict, asking the lower court to re-calculate the financial loss and impact Samsung had suffered. Two months later, prosecutors demanded a six-year jail sentence for Lee in late July.
Lee, the richest person in South Korea according to Forbes, resigned from the top post in April last year after he was sentenced to 3-year suspended jail term on tax evasion. Before his step-down, he successfully expanded Samsung’s business to overseas markets and elevated the local electronic producer into an international big brand during his two-decade reign. His late father founded Samsung.
Presiding Judge Kim Chang-suk granted a suspended term for Lee, citing the fact that Lee had already paid back more than the 22.7 billion won of damages, and that the former corporate leader has made “considerable contributions to Samsung’s development.” The Associated Press contributed to this article.
