South Korea’s appeals court has thrown Samsung’s Lee Jae-yong back in jail for bribery, in a landmark ruling that will leave the country’s biggest conglomerate without its top decision maker for a year-and-a-half.
Seoul’s high court on Monday sentenced Lee to two-and-a-half years in prison following a retrial, although prosecutors had sought a nine-year term. The billionaire, who was immediately detained after the ruling, will only spend 18 months behind bars as he previously spent a year in prison before being released by an appeals court in 2018.
The final ruling, which followed years of legal wrangling, is a setback for Samsung, whose electronics unit is the world’s biggest manufacturer of computer chips, smartphones and electronic displays.