Former Samsung Chairman Lee won't appeal ruling on tax evasion

SEOUL, Oct. 18 (Yonhap) -- Former Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee has decided to drop an appeal of a recent court ruling that handed the nation's richest person a suspended sentence for tax evasion, court officials said Saturday.

The move comes after a Seoul appeals court found Lee guilty of tax evasion on
Oct. 10, and gave him a three-year prison term and 110 billion won (US$82.45
million) in fines. The jail term was suspended for five years.
The court, however, dismissed a breach of trust charge linked to his wealth
transfer to his only son, Jae-yong, affirming a lower court's verdict that spared
him a prison sentence. As the prosecutor was expected to appeal the ruling, the
financial decision will be decided in the Supreme Court.
In April, a special prosecutor indicted Lee, 66, on charges of evading 112.8
billion won in taxes by hiding assets under borrowed-name stock accounts from
2000-2006 and orchestrating the murky wealth transfer to his son in the
mid-1990s.
In an apparent bid to burnish Samsung's tarnished corporate image, Lee resigned
in the same month, and the group carried out a management overhaul, dismantling
its strategic planning office that was regarded as its control tower, and
relegating the former chairman's authority to executives.
Samsung is South Korea's largest conglomerate that generates roughly 20 percent
of the nation's exports. The businesses of its 59 affiliates range from
shipbuilding to handset carriers, a theme park and life insurance. Samsung
Electronics Co. is the world's No. 1 maker of computer memory chips and the
second-largest maker of mobile phones.
kokobj@yna.co.kr
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