SEOUL, South Korea — Lee Myung-bak, a former president of South Korea, was sentenced on Friday to 15 years in prison for bribery and embezzlement, becoming the second South Korean leader convicted in recent months in a crackdown on corruption.
Mr. Lee was president from 2008 to 2013. His successor, Park Geun-hye, who was impeached and ousted on charges of corruption and abuse of power, was sentenced to 25 years in prison by an appeals court in August.
In a nationally televised ruling on Friday, Mr. Lee was convicted of collecting bribes from various sources, including 6.1 billion won, or about $5.4 million, from Samsung, the country’s largest business conglomerate, when he was a presidential candidate and after he took office in 2008.
In return for the bribes, Mr. Lee did favors for Samsung executives, including granting a presidential pardon to Lee Kun-hee, the company’s chairman, who was convicted of embezzlement and tax evasion in 2009, Judge Chung Kae-seon said in her ruling at the Seoul Central District Court on Friday.
The presidential pardon of Lee Kun-hee was criticized at the time as an example of leniency for top businessmen found guilty of serious white-collar crimes. The tycoon had been forced to resign as Samsung chairman in 2008 after allegations of corruption surfaced against him, but he returned to the company’s leadership ranks just months after being pardoned.
Lee Myung-bak said at the time that he decided to grant Lee Kun-hee special amnesty so the businessman could retain his membership on the International Olympic Committee and lead South Korea’s bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics.
The court on Friday also ruled that the former president disguised his ownership of a lucrative auto-parts maker under the name of relatives and embezzled 24 billion won from the company between 1995 and 2007. The court found that Samsung offered to bribe Mr. Lee in the form of paying his legal fees for settling a legal case that implicated the auto-parts company.
The court said Samsung’s bribes were approved by Lee Kun-hee, who has been incapacitated since a heart attack in 2014.
In February, an appeals court convicted Lee Jae-yong, the son of Lee Kun-hee and a Samsung vice chairman, of bribing Ms. Park, who succeeded Lee Myung-bak as president.
But Lee Jae-yong was freed because the appeals court suspended his prison term of two and a half years.
Samsung on Friday offered no immediate comment on the former president’s conviction.
Lee Myung-bak was also ordered to pay 13 billion won in fines. Mr. Lee, who did not appear in court on Friday, had a week to appeal. He vehemently denied any wrongdoing during his trial.
“During the hearings, he shifted the blame to his aides, accusing them of committing the crimes for their own profit and conspiring against him,” Judge Chung said on Friday.
Almost all of South Korea’s former presidents, as well as many of its business tycoons, have been implicated in corruption scandals.
Mr. Lee, a former Hyundai executive, won the presidency by promising to use his business skills to help rejuvenate the South Korean economy. But he was dogged by allegations of corruption before and after his election. In March, he became the fourth former president to have been arrested on corruption charges since the 1990s.
South Korea’s current president, Moon Jae-in, won an election to replace Ms. Park in May of last year with promises to root out corrupt ties between politicians and businessmen.
Source : Nytimes
