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Korea president to pardon ex-Samsung CEO

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] South Korean officials announced Monday that President Lee Myung-bak plans to pardon former Samsung Chairman and CEO Kun-Hee Lee on tax fraud charges he was convicted of in 2008. Lee had faced a suspended three-year prison term after an additional breach of trust conviction against him was vacated. The already lenient sentence given to Lee has been criticized as evidence of special treatment for the county's elite. Supporters hope that the pardon will allow Lee to again assist the country in its bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics, and even resume his post with Samsung. The pardon is scheduled to take effect on Thursday. Samsung, South Korea's largest corporation, has been at the center of numerous legal battles over the past few years. In May 2007, a South Korean appellate court upheld the conviction of two Samsung executives connected with illegal stock trading. In April 2007, another Samsung executive pleaded guilty to US charges of conspiring to artificially inflate the cost of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), affecting the price of personal computers worldwide. In 2005, Samsung reached an agreement with the US Department of Justice to plead guilty to charges that it conspired with other technology companies to fix prices on DRAM chips.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on December 29, 2009 (boomark / email).