Samsung Vice Chairman Set Free in Unexpected Court Reversal

A South Korean appeals court let Samsung Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee walk free from prison after suspending his sentence for bribery, according to Bloomberg.

It's a stunning reversal that raises questions about the government’s ability to reform the nation’s most powerful corporations. The heir to the country’s largest conglomerate had appealed his sentence, which the court reduced by half to two and a half years. He will be on probation for four years, the court said.

A Seoul court had earlier convicted Lee of giving a confidante of Park’s thoroughbred horses in the hope it would secure government support for a merger that would help his ascension to the top of the company. Lee denied any legal wrongdoing and appealed the original sentence, saying he never sought to unseat his father as Samsung chairman in the first place.

Former Samsung Corporate Strategy Office chief Choi Gee-sung and former President Chang Choong-ki, who were each sentenced to four years in prison, also received suspended prison terms. The court said that this wasn’t a typical example of the “cozy relationship between politics and business,“ adding that there was no evidence that the defendants had requested or gained benefits from offering a bribe to Park.