Turbulent days for Samsung: the heir and leader of the comradesLee Jae-yong was just sentenced by Seoul Central District Court to pay a large fine for illegal drug use, especially propofol, a powerful anesthetic. According to what was reported by the Yonhap agency, the vice president of the electronics giant, will have to pay a fine from well 70 million won (about $ 60,000).
Samsung: maxi fine to the vice president for drug use
A Lee Jae-yong seems to have gone particularly badly in law, given that the court not only sentenced him to pay the aforementioned maxi fine, but also ordered a further confiscation of 17 million won against Lee, for the violations of the law on drug control, effectively accepting in full the requests and the accusatory system of the prosecutor’s office.
The accusations date back to last June, when Korean prosecutors managed to indict Samsung’s vice president for using the propofol unhooked from medical treatments in a Seoul plastic surgery clinic for a total of 41 occasions between January 2015 and May 2020.
Under South Korean law, the recipient of a controlled substance believed to have been illegally administered is punishable, as are those who distributed that substance. Lee’s attorney, however, said that the use of propofol was part of inpatient treatment and not illegal, a thesis that evidently did not convince the judges, given that the latter sentenced Lee Jae-yong to the maximum sentence.
It is not the first scandal involving the Samsung deputy, however, given that the man was already in prison for a sentence of 2 and a half years, then reduced due to a government intervention, for a corruption case involving the ex. President of the Republic of Korea, Park Geun-hye.