Samsung’s Size Could Make It Tough to Keep Its Leader in Prison<br />SEOUL, South Korea — This is a partial list of the businesses of Samsung, the South Korean business empire: smartphones, microchips, insurance, gas ovens, hospitals,<br />dishwashers, cargo ships, stocks, microwave ovens, apartment buildings, vacuum cleaners, credit cards, pharmaceuticals, air-conditioners and bidets.<br />A South Korean court on Friday shocked the country by sentencing Lee Jae-yong, the third-generation de facto leader of one of the<br />world’s largest business empires, to five years in prison after his conviction of bribery, embezzlement and other charges.<br />They are among the companies that South Korea’s pre-democratic military rulers partnered with to build a global exporting powerhouse after the Korean War — a partnership<br />that South Korean school textbooks credit with helping the country’s rise.<br />Other South Korean companies have been run by powerful family members behind bars,<br />and Mr. Lee will most likely have significant access to top Samsung executives while in prison.<br />Mr. Lee is not the first big business figure in South Korea to be convicted, but if he stays in prison it would represent something of a milestone.<br />Other top business South Korean leaders have avoided conviction, negotiated<br />light sentences or been allowed to run their corporate empires from prison.
