Samsung leader Lee set to stand trial for alleged unlawful use of sedative By Reuters
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By Joyce Lee
SEOUL (Reuters) – Samsung (KS:) conglomerate chief Jay Y. Lee is about to face trial on Tuesday charged with the illegal use of a managed substance, as authorized woes proceed to hang-out the manager even after his launch on parole in August following a bribery conviction.
Lee’s launch had raised market watchers’ expectations of a flurry of main selections at crown jewel Samsung Electronics (OTC:) Co Ltd and its associates, together with the placement of a $17 billion chip manufacturing facility being deliberate in america.
However Lee is having to refocus on his authorized troubles, with the Seoul Central District Courtroom scheduled to carry its first listening to of a case wherein Lee is suspected of receiving propofol – a sedative utilized in anaesthesia – outdoors of medical functions at a clinic in Seoul.
Beneath South Korean legislation, the recipient of a managed substance deemed to have been administered illegally is chargeable for prosecution, in addition to those that administered the drug.
Lee’s counsel has mentioned his use was hospital therapy and never illegal. Clinic employees, who’re being tried individually, have denied wrongdoing.
Prosecutors have been first made conscious of the matter in 2020 however have been suggested to drop their investigation in March 2021 by an impartial panel reviewing prosecution probes. They continued to hunt the utmost advantageous as lately as June earlier than one other police report of sedative use led the courtroom to order a trial.
The crime carries a most sentence of 5 years in jail or a most advantageous of fifty million received.
Authorized specialists, nonetheless, mentioned they don’t count on the utmost penalty ought to Lee be discovered responsible as a result of propofol is much less more likely to be misused than many different managed substances.
Lee was convicted in January of bribery and embezzlement and sentenced to 30 months in jail – together with a 12 months served earlier than his sentencing. He was paroled in August, with the presidential workplace calling for public understanding, citing hope that he’ll assist the nation produce “semiconductors and vaccines”.
After his launch, Samsung mentioned it will make investments 240 trillion received within the subsequent three years in fields reminiscent of chips and biopharmaceuticals. Lee himself has saved a low profile.
Lee is concurrently on trial accused of stock-price manipulation and accounting fraud associated to the $8 billion merger of two Samsung corporations in 2015, with hearings held weekly.
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