Samsung heir Jay Y. Lee ordered back to prison over bribery charges

• Jay Y. Lee, the vice chairman and de facto leader of Samsung, has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison.
• Lee was originally given a five-year sentence in 2017 — and spent a year in jail — but that punishment was cut short and suspended in 2018.
• He was accused of bribing a friend of a South Korean president to win support for his succession at Samsung.

Samsung's vice chairman and de facto leader, Jay Y. Lee, on Monday was sent back to prison with a 2-1/2-year sentence over bribery charges.

Lee has been the de facto head of Samsung Electronics since his father, Lee Kun-hee, was hospitalized following a heart attack in 2014. The elder Lee died in October.

The younger Lee was initially sentenced to five years in prison in 2017 for his part in a corruption scandal that brought down South Korean President Park Geun-hye.

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Lee, 52, was accused of offering horses and other bribes to a friend of Park's with the hope of winning government support for his succession at Samsung. He was also found guilty of embezzlement.

Park is serving a 20-year prison sentence in connection to the case as well as other charges.

Lee served a year in jail before being released in February 2018, after the Seoul High Court cut his five-year sentence in half and suspended it.

Monday's ruling is a result of the country's Supreme Court overturning the lower court's decision to suspend Lee's sentence and ordering a retrial in 2019. Returning to prison could mean Lee is forced off the Samsung board and would not be considered in major decisions at the company.

Samsung didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider about future leadership at the company.

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Shares of Samsung Electronics dropped 3.4% Monday after Lee's sentencing.

"This case is, in essence, a violation of corporation's rights to freedom and property by the former president abusing her power," Injae Lee, the lawyer leading the vice chairman's defense team, told CNN. "I find the court's decision regrettable."