South Korea’s prosecutors on Monday sought an unusually high prison term of 12 years for Jay Y. Lee, the de facto leader of the country’s largest conglomerate Samsung Group on trial under physical detention on charges of bribery and other irregularities connected to the corruption scandal that removed former president Park Geun-hye and also brought her to the court.

A special prosecution team led by Park Young-soo Monday demanded a 12-year prison term for Lee, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics Co., in a final trial held at the Seoul Central District Court for providing or promising 43.3 billion won ($38.4 million) to Choi Soon-sil, friend of former leader Park Geun-hye who is in the center of a political scandal involving abuse of power.

The prosecutors also asked for 10 years’ imprisonment on each of the three former Samsung officials - Choi Gee-sung, former vice chairman and head of Samsung’s future strategy office, Chang Choong-ki, former president and deputy head, and Park Sang-jin, former president - and a seven-year prison term for Hwang Sung-soo, former executive vice president.

“The (Samsung) case typical corruption crime deriving from collusion between the public and corporate sector that had greatly undermined the constitutional values of civilian sovereignty and economic democratization,” said the team of special prosecutors.

“Fair judgment and strict punishment can help to restore national dignity and unite the people for economic growth,” it claimed for recommending the harsh jail term for Samsung executives including the young leader who has been heading the country’s top company on behalf of bedridden Lee Kun-hee.

The special prosecution team claims Samsung Group pledged subsidy of 21.3 billion for horse-riding training fees for Choi’s daughter Chung Yoo-ra and paid up 7.79 billion won. Other allegedly bribery include providing 20.4 billion won contributions to Choi’s Mir and K-Sports foundations and 1.63 billion won to Korea Winter Sports Elite Center.

In return, the president exercised influence over government entities for favoritism towards the group including backing of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries that helped to cement younger Lee’s legitimate grip over the conglomerate.

Lee and others denied the charges, reiterating that the funds were to support horse-riding prospects with no intentions of providing special favors to Chung and that the contributions to the foundations and the sports elite center were unconditional donation.

Lee was also accused of embezzling 29.8 billion won from companies and allegedly using it to provide the funds for Choi and also of hiding assets overseas by transferring them to an entity owned by Choi in Germany. The prosecution applied charges of concealment of criminal proceeds on the Samsung heir for making false reports on Chung’s horse ownership and of perjury for making false testimony at a special National Assembly hearing in December, last year, on the Choi scandal by denying knowledge of the affair.

The court will deliver its ruling on Lee on Aug. 25.

Shares of Samsung Electronics finished Monday 0.3 percent lower at 2,379,000.

By Lee Hyun-jung

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]