Lee Jae-yong: Why South Korea just pardoned the Samsung ‘prince’

BBC News:

Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong – convicted of bribery and embezzlement in 2017 – has been granted a special presidential pardon.

One of South Korea’s most powerful white collar criminals, Lee was twice imprisoned for bribing a former president.

South Korea’s government justified the move, saying the de-facto leader of the country’s biggest company was needed back at the helm to spearhead economic recovery post-pandemic.

This marks another swing in a struggle over how the country is run that has raged since mass protests took over Seoul six years ago and ousted a president from office.

Lee’s crimes were directly tied up in the corruption scandal that led to the imprisonment of former president Park Geun-Hye, in office from 2013-2017.

The “Crown Prince of Samsung” – as he was dubbed by protesters – paid $8 million (£6.6m) in bribes to President Park and her associate to secure support for a merger opposed by shareholders that would shore up his control of his family’s empire.

When it was revealed, millions of South Koreans turned out at candlelit protests every weekend in the 2016/2017 winter, demanding an end to Park’s government and the stitch-up between politics and business.

Korea’s parliament impeached Park and she was imprisoned in 2017 for 25 years.

Lee, who is also known as Jay Y Lee in the West, was jailed a year later for offences including embezzling company funds to buy a $800,000 (£650,000) horse for the president’s friend’s daughter.

A new president, Moon Jae-in swept into office with a mandate to clean up the mess. But he failed to make much headway. In his last days as president, he granted a pardon to his predecessor.

Now eight months later, under another new president, Samsung’s chief has also received the same clemency.

For those who have been fighting against corruption, it’s a dispiriting blow.

“It is a setback. And it means Korea retreats to the time before the candlelit demonstrations,” said Sangin Park, an economics and industrial policy professor at Seoul National University.