Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong resigns as Chairman of Samsung Life Insurance Foundation

Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, who was sentenced to two years and six months in prison in the ‘Kukjeong Nongdan’ trial and served as the chairman of the Samsung Life Insurance Foundation.

According to the business community on the 21st, the Samsung Life Insurance Foundation will begin the procedure for replacing the chairman in accordance with the relevant laws, since Vice Chairman Lee was sentenced to jail.

According to the Social Welfare Service Act, a person who has been sentenced to imprisonment or higher than the imprisonment and has not passed three years from the date the execution is terminated or the execution is exempted cannot become an executive, such as a director of a social welfare corporation.

In fact, the Seoul Metropolitan Government, which directs and supervises the Samsung Life Insurance Public Interest Foundation, concluded that it would violate the relevant laws for Vice Chairman Lee to continue to serve as chairman, and it is believed that it is expected to notify this soon.

Accordingly, the Samsung Life Insurance Public Interest Foundation plans to hold a board of directors soon and appoint a successor chairman.

A business official said, “(Replacement of the chairman) is a process that must be taken to comply with the relevant laws. There is not a separate dismissal procedure, but Lee is not dismissed, but replaced with a new chairman.”

Meanwhile, the Samsung Life Insurance Public Interest Foundation, the largest public welfare foundation in Korea, is Samsung’s representative welfare foundation. Established in 1982, it operates Samsung Seoul Hospital and Samsung Noble County to conduct medical and elderly welfare projects. In May 2015, Vice Chairman Lee took over the post of Chairman of the Samsung Life Insurance Public Interest Foundation from the late Chairman Lee Kun-hee, who was former Chairman of the Board, and reappointed once again.