Samsung Heir to Be Freed From Prison After Court Reduces Sentence<br />5, 2018<br />HONG KONG — Lee Jae-yong, heir to South Korea’s Samsung corporate empire, is due to be freed from prison after an<br />appeals court on Monday reduced the sentence given to him last year for bribery, embezzlement and other charges.<br />The younger Mr. Lee was indicted last year on charges of bribing Ms. Park, South Korea’s<br />president at the time, to strengthen his control over Samsung’s businesses.<br />The accusations against Mr. Lee were part of one of the largest influence-peddling scandals in the country’s history, one<br />that has already toppled Park Geun-hye, South Korea’s former president.<br />Mr. Lee’s father, Lee Kun-hee, Samsung’s group chairman, has twice been convicted of white-collar crimes — and twice spared prison time.<br />The decision is a blow to South Korean prosecutors who had hoped the longer sentence would send a signal<br />that the authorities would no longer mete out only light punishments for lawbreaking corporate titans.<br />Mr. Lee’s lawyers acknowledged the payments but argued that Ms. Park had coerced Mr. Lee into making them.
