Samsung Chairman fined $375,000, to face 5 years in prison

Jay Y. Lee, chairman of Samsung Electronics, may be sent to prison along with 13 other Samsung executives for crimes relating to the manipulation of stock prices.

Lee, who may also face a fine of $375,000, was said to have committed the crime in connection with the 2015 merger of Samsung subsidiaries.

Lee was declared not guilty in February of accounting fraud and stock manipulation by a Seoul Central District Court however, the prosecutors appealed the ruling.

For a while now, Lee had faced queries about his ability to lead Samsung, seeing that the smartphone maker has been grappling with slow profits and falling stock prices.

Lee and other former executives had been accused of engineering a merger between two Samsung affiliates (Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries) that did not adequately protect the interests of minority shareholders.

State prosecutors noted that Lee acted to benefit his personal standing as the de facto leader of the Samsung conglomerate at the expense of shareholders and investors. However, Lee and other executives denied the allegations.

Lee has been dogged over the past decade by lawsuits, jail time, and attacks from foreign hedge fund Elliott over the 2015 merger of the affiliates that helped tighten his grip on the sprawling conglomerate after his father was hospitalised due to a heart attack in 2014.

“I am fully aware that there are grave concerns about the future of Samsung recently,” Lee said during his final statement.

“The reality that we faced is challenging more than ever,” he said, pledging to overcome the difficulties and asking the judge to give him an opportunity to reinvent Samsung.