Samsung heir I Jae-yong was sentenced to 2,5 years behind bars for bribery. The Court of Appeal in South Korea announced the verdict after a long trial, in which the former president of the country, Park Geun-hye, also figured.
Jae-jong was also accused by the indictment of bribing a close aide of ex-president Park Geun-hye to allow Samsung's Samsung C&T division (formerly known as Samsung Corporation) to merge with its affiliate Cheil Industries, giving him control of a key Samsung division Electronics (and replace his father in the highest post here).
The descendant of longtime Samsung boss Lee Kun-hee and one of South Korea's richest men, he has been in prison before, spending more than a year behind bars. He returned to his post in 2018, but the country's Supreme Court returned the case to the Seoul Court of Appeal last year. Samsung will most likely appeal again, but given that the Supreme Court has already ruled once before, the verdict and associated prison sentence will likely be final.
During the final phase of the trial, prosecutors sought a 9-year prison sentence for I Chae-jong. In a historic apology last year, Jae-yong Yi pledged to be the last leader in the Samsung bloodline that began with his grandfather Lee Byung-chul.
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