Samsung Electronics vice chairman Jay Y. Lee, in jail after convictions for bribery, embezzlement and other charges, has qualified for parole and is expected to leave prison this Friday, South Korea’s justice ministry said.
“The decision to grant Samsung Electronics vice chairman Jay Y. Lee parole was the result of a comprehensive review of various factors such as public sentiment and good behavior during detention,” the ministry said in a statement on Monday.
Convicted of bribing a friend of former President Park Geun-hye, Lee, 53, has served 18 months of a revised 30 month sentence. He initially served one year of a five-year sentence from August 2017 which was later suspended. That court decision was then overturned and while the sentence was shortened, he was sent back to jail in January this year.
Support for his parole, both political and public and from the wider business community, had grown amid anxiety that key strategic decisions are not being made at the South Korean tech giant.
Although the day-to-day running of the world’s biggest memory chip maker and smartphone manufacturer has not been affected by his absence, company sources say decisions on major investment and M&A projects should only be made by Lee.
The Federation of Korean Industries, a big business lobby, said in a statement that it welcomed the decision to grant Lee parole.
“If the investment clock, currently at standstill, is not wound up quickly, we could lag behind global companies such as Intel and TSMC and lose the Korean economy’s bread and butter at a moment’s notice.”
Lee still needs the Justice Minister to approve his return to work as the law bars persons with certain convictions from working for companies related to those convictions for five years.
He is likely to get that, legal experts say, due to circumstances such as the amount deemed embezzled having been repaid.
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