Jay Y. Lee, heir and acting vice president of Samsung, was sentenced to prison again for the corruption case he was involved in in 2017. The tycoon had already served a year in prison, but was released following an action by the company's lawyers. However, the new sentence by the South Korean Superior Court of Justice ruled that Lee must serve another two and a half years for the crimes of bribery and embezzlement.

The conviction came at a difficult time for the company. In October of last year, the former owner of Samsung and father of Jay Y. Lee passed away, so the tycoon was supposed to formally assume the presidency. With his arrest, the company's board of directors decided to remove him from decision-making and, by law, he will also be removed from the inheritance process.

The family's lawyers will appeal the Superior Court's decision. According to the Reuters, they claim that “this is a case of abuse of power by the former president of the country that violates the company's right to freedom and property. Therefore, [the conviction] is reversible.”

Political scandal

The case in which Samsung's chairman is being arrested is part of a major corruption scandal that has rocked South Korea and led to the impeachment of the country's former president, Park Geun-hye. Elected in 2013, she and her friend Choi Soon-sil had created a scheme to extort money and political influence that involved megacorporations such as Samsung, Hyundai and others.

In late 2016, the corruption case was uncovered and Park was convicted of 16 of the 18 charges, including corruption, influence peddling, bribery and abuse of power. As a result, she was arrested and had her mandate revoked.

At the time, Jay Y. Lee had gotten involved with the former president to obtain some political benefits. He even offered bribes in the form of money and horses to Choi to secure powers for his technology company. The acting president of Samsung was then discovered and sentenced to prison, but he had the help of lawyers who reversed the situation.

Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. Business Insider

Image: George Clerk/iStock