Former President Lee gets 15 years in jail for corruption

A Seoul court sentenced former President Lee Myung-bak to 15 years in jail for corruption Friday, making him the fourth ex-South Korean leader to be criminally convicted.

In the live televised trial, the court found the 76-year-old former leader guilty of bribery, embezzlement and other charges. He was ordered to pay 13 billion won (US$11.5 million) in fines and forfeit 8.2 billion won.

Lee, president from 2008-2013, was arrested on March 22 and indicted on April 9. Prosecutors demanded 20 years in prison on 16 counts of charges. The court convicted him of seven charges.

The court ruled that he embezzled 2.46 billion won from DAS, an auto parts company at the center of the scandal. It concluded, on the basis of testimony by Lee’s close aides, that he is the de facto owner of the company, disguising it as his brother’s company.

Lee denied the allegation he was the real owner of the company.

The court also ruled he accepted 5.9 billion won in bribes from Samsung Electronics Co. in the form of retaining fees for DAS.

Samsung paid the money seeking a presidential pardon for Chairman Lee Kun-hee, who was jailed for tax evasion, it said.

Lee was also found guilty of receiving about 2.4 billion won in bribes from a financial company chief, a former intelligence agency chief and a former lawmaker.

The court said he caused a 400 million won loss to the state by receiving inappropriate money from the state intelligence agency’s special activities fund. But the court did not recognize it as bribery.

The court dismissed power abuse and tax evasion charges filed by the prosecution.

Lee’s lawyer said he will appeal the ruling. Lee did not attend the hearing in protest against the live broadcast.

Lee insisted the trial was a political retaliation by administration of President Moon Jae-in over the death of late former President Roh Moo-hyun. Roh killed himself in 2009 while under a prosecution investigation into corruption allegations. Moon served as Roh’s chief of staff.

The scandal has tainted Lee’s long-established image of a self-made man who started off as a salaryman and rose to the top post at one of the country’s leading companies in only 11 years. He entered politics in 1992.

His successor, Park Geun-hye, is serving 33 years behind bars pending a top court decision over a string of corruption charges that led to her ousting last year.

Former Presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo were convicted of corruption and other charges until they were pardoned by former President Kim Young-sam.

Former President Lee Myung-bak walks towards the Seoul Central District Court to attend his corruption trial on Sept. 6, 2018. (Yonhap)