Seoul, Aug 12: Samsung’s Vice Chairman Lee Jae-Yong was given a presidential pardon on Friday, in a move widely expected to help him consolidate his leadership and speed up business decision-making in the country’s biggest conglomerate. The decision comes as the tech giant has been faced with intensifying global competition from smaller rivals, including those in China, and growing economic uncertainty from global inflation, monetary tightening, and worries over an economic slowdown.
Earlier in the day, President Yoon Suk-yeol approved his first special pardons for Lee, Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin, and 1,691 others on the occasion of the Aug. 15 Liberation Day anniversary. Yoon said the pardon was expected to help the country “overcome the economic crisis.”Samsung heir Lee was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison in a bribery case involving former President Park Geun-Hye and released on parole in August last year. His prison term officially ended July 29
