Samsung Chairman Sentenced to Five Years in Prison

A South Korean court has sentenced Samsung’s acting chairman Lee Jae-yong to five years in prison for bribery, perjury and other corruption charges.

The billionaire heir to the sprawling Samsung empire had been accused of making large donations to several foundations, run by an associate of former South Korean President Park Geun-hye, in exchange for political favors, according to CNN.

“The public is disappointed that this kind of large-scale crime caused by cozy relations between politics and business still happens — it’s not in the past but remains a reality,” Judge Kim Jin-dong said in court. The case is only one part of the larger scandal that eventually led to the president’s removal from office, The Guardian reported. Kim also laid some of the blame on the former president, claiming that he had made “aggressive demands” of Samsung.

Lee was found guilty of bribing Park to sway government support for a merger that helped him cement his control of Samsung. The court also charged Lee with perjury, concealing criminal profits, embezzlement and hiding assets overseas. The five-year sentence is well short of the 12 years that prosecutors had originally sought, CNN reported. The 49-year-old Samsung heir, who is also the third-richest man in South Korea, had been acting as the de facto chief executive of Samsung since his father was incapacitated by a heart attack in 2014.

The verdict is yet another black mark on Samsung’s reputation and caps a turbulent 12 months for the company that was also marred by the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco. Despite Lee’s prison sentence, analysts predict that the verdict is unlikely to have significant repercussions on the tech giant’s operations. Just this week, Samsung unveiled its latest flagship device, the Galaxy Note 8.

Lee has denied any wrongdoing. His attorneys told reporters Friday that they will reject the court’s decision and seek an appeal immediately.