General Society: Society: News: Hankyoreh 21

353 days. Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong was previously trapped in a detention center from 2017 to 2018. On January 18, 2021, the 354th day began again. On that day, the first criminal division of the Seoul High Court (Jun-young Chung) sentenced him to two years and six months in prison in the repatriation trial of Lee, who was charged with bribing 8.6 billion won to former President Park Geun-hye in connection with the succession of Samsung Group’s management rights. Vice-Chairman Lee was arrested in court.

Released in July 2022 when sentenced

It’s been 1078 days. Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong was released from the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang-si, Gyeonggi-do, after being sentenced to four years probation after two years and six months of imprisonment at an appeal trial on February 5, 2018. After being sentenced to five years in prison at the first trial, he was sentenced to more than one year in prison. The time to be released (3 years) was longer than the time of being locked up (1 year). On January 18, 2020, Vice Chairman Lee headed back to the Seoul Detention Center. If the ruling remandatory hearing is confirmed by the Supreme Court, or if both Vice-Chairman Lee and the special prosecutor do not appeal again, the sentence is confirmed, it will be released in July 2022. Of course, it is more likely to come first. The number of chaebols who have been sentenced to imprisonment so far was counted in the hand, and even if they lived in prison, there were no chaebols who filled the entire sentence. He was convicted of bribing former President Roh Tae-woo and was sentenced to two years in prison and three years probation in 1996. A special pardon was granted immediately the following year. In relation to the slush fund case known as the so-called’X-Files case’, he was also sentenced to three years in prison and five years probation in 2009, and was pardoned after only four months. At the time, President Lee Myung-bak exercised a special pardon for only one Chairman Lee Kun-hee. The Seoul High Court Criminal Division 1st Vice-Chairman Lee’s ruling stated that “Samsung needs to analyze how the slush funds were raised in the past bribery cases against Presidents Doo-Hwan Chun, Tae-woo Roh, Myung-bak Lee, and Geun-hye Park, and prepare a countermeasure to (avoid this)” That’s why I mentioned it. This is because not only management rights, but also illegal slush funds and the practices of collusion with political affairs were passed on. Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong could not avoid arrest like his father. This is also the reason why the evaluations of’condemned to look after’ and’condemned the head of the chaebol’ are mixed over the sentence of two years and six months in prison. Just a few years ago, a’reconnaissance ruling’ was handed down to chaebol heads. In many cases, sentences of three years in prison and five years probation have led to the term ‘3·5 law’. Including the late Chairman Lee Kun-hee, Hyundai Motor Company Chairman Chung Mong-koo, Park Yong-seong, former Doosan Chairman, SK Chairman Choi Tae-won, SK Chairman, Kim Seung-yeon, Hanwha Chairman, and late Cho Yang-ho, Hanjin Chairman, all sentenced to the “3·5 Law” attorney Kim Jong-bo (Democratic Society). “The Ministry of Justice has not sentenced Vice-Chairman Lee to probation, but the minimum imprisonment is 2 years and 6 months, even within the scope of the punishment (a sentence that a judge can legally aggravate or reduce). He said, “It’s just’to look after another chaebol’ to be sentenced,” he said.

Lee Kun-hee, Jung Mong-gu, Park Yong-seong, etc.

Since 2013, there has been an atmosphere of increasing jail sentences for crimes by chaebol heads. However, the actual period of imprisonment in a jail or prison was not long compared to the sentence. From 2013 to September 2018, the chaebol crime white paper published by analyzing a case convicted by a family of conglomerates who was convicted of imprisonment or higher (at the time of Chae Yi-bae, the office of the Parliamentary Party of the Barun Mirae Party), the number of days in custody of Chairman Tae-won Choi was the longest among the total number of chaebols. . Chairman Choi, who was convicted of embezzlement of 46.5 billion won in subsidiaries’ funds, was released with a special pardon on Liberation Day in August 2015, when 63% of the final sentence (four years in prison) was filled. Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin (1st trial 2 years and 6 months imprisonment) and Kim Seungyeon (1st trial 4 years imprisonment) were sentenced to imprisonment at the 1st trial, but only 233 days and 143 days in prison respectively. Chairman Shin was released after being sentenced to probation in the second trial, and Chairman Kim was suspended in arrest five months after the first trial (see table). Suspension of arrest, bail, parole, and special pardon are cards frequently mobilized by chaebol heads to avoid prison life. Former Taekwang Chairman Lee Ho-jin was arrested on charges of embezzlement and dismissal in 2011, but the arrest was suspended after 63 days. It was the reason for liver cancer. After being released on bail, he was tried without imprisonment for more than seven years. With the controversy over the’emperor’s bail’, the prosecution arrested him again in 2018, and the following year he was sentenced to three years in prison. CJ Group Chairman Lee Jae-hyun was arrested in 2013 on charges of embezzlement and dismissal, but due to deteriorating health such as chronic renal failure, he suspended execution of arrest and repeated imprisonment. In 2015, when he was sentenced to two years and six months in prison at a remand court of revocation, he suddenly gave up retrial and was subject to a special pardon on Liberation Day. The possibility of parole or special pardon has already been discussed for Vice Chairman Lee. According to Article 72 of the Criminal Code, if one-third of the sentence is satisfied, it may be subject to parole. Vice-Chairman Lee has already filled 40% of the sentence. It is known that the lawyers are also weighing the abandonment of re-appeals because the sentence must be confirmed to be eligible for special pardon. However, the variable is that it is undergoing another trial. Vice Chairman Lee was also charged with disseminating false information ahead of the merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries in connection with the succession of management rights. Criminal Division 25-2 of the Seoul Central District Court (presiding judge Lim Jeong-yeop), who was in charge of this trial, set the preparation date for the trial on January 14, but delayed it due to the Corona 19 epidemic.

“The Ministry of Justice should ask Samsung Electronics to dismiss Lee Jae-yong”

A total of 439 reps over 353 days. Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong interviewed attorneys on average 1.24 times a day during his previous imprisonment. For the head of the chaebol, the interview with lawyers is not simply a time to prepare for the next trial, but as a channel for making major decisions related to business management. It is a so-called’emperor interview’. Now, due to the spread of Corona 19, interviews to the public other than lawyers are prohibited. Civil society organizations point out that Vice-Chairman Lee should not conduct’in-house management’ this time. Article 14 of the Act on Aggravated Punishment for Specific Economic Crimes prohibits employment in companies closely related to criminal acts for five years after the end of the sentence of imprisonment. In a commentary on Jan. 19, the Solidarity for Economic Reform insisted, “If the judgment is confirmed, the Ministry of Justice should immediately request the dismissal of vice chairman Lee Jae-yong from the chairman of the board of directors of Samsung Electronics.” By Hwang Ye-rang, staff reporter [email protected]