According to Yonhap News Agency, on August 12, South Korean President Yoon Seok-woo pardoned Lee Jae-young, head of the Samsung Group and vice president of Samsung Electronics, in addition to Lee Jae-yong, the South Korean president also pardoned another 1,692 people to commemorate the country's Independence Day on August 15.
In 2017, Lee jae-yong was accused of paying bribes totaling $36.42 million to organizations linked to former South Korean President Park Geun-hye, and in the same year he was sentenced to five years in prison, but in 2018 he was commuted to a 2.5-year suspended sentence. The case was sent for re-investigation in 2019 and he was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison in 2021 but released on parole in August 2021. Although released on parole, he needs a pardon before his official sentence ends on July 29, 2023, to restore all his civil rights.
Lee Jae-yong, 54, is the 278th richest man in the world, and Friday's pardon will automatically lift the employment ban imposed on him by the court for five years after he was sentenced to prison, Forbes reported. The South Korean government explained the amnesty to the former Samsung executive: "Due to the global economic crisis, the vitality and dynamism of the national economy has deteriorated, and there are fears that the recession will drag on, and we hope that this businessman can "lead the engine of national growth, actively invest in technology and job creation."
Attorney General Han Dong-hoon said Lee would be reinstated at Samsung "to help overcome South Korea's economic crisis."