Samsung’s boss avoids prison, again
Lee Jae-yong’s acquittal will benefit him, but not necessary South Korea
![Lee Jae-yong, the chairman of Samsung Electronics, arrives at court.](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20240210_WBP501.jpg)
IT HAS BEEN a while since Lee Jae-yong did not have a court date in his diary. In 2017 the scion of the family that controls Samsung, South Korea’s mightiest chaebol (conglomerate), was charged with bribing an associate of Park Geun-hye, then the country’s president. After being found guilty that year, he was in and out of prison before being paroled and eventually pardoned in 2022. In 2020, in the middle of that saga, he was indicted for stock-price manipulation, breach of trust and auditing fraud. He has since made 95 trips to Seoul Central District Court.
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This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Out of the nick, in time”
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