SEOUL — Samsung’s de facto leader, Lee Jae-yong, will receive a pardon on Monday, South Korea’s presidential office said, a legal reprieve underpinned by expectations that the business tycoon will help propel the nation’s economy.
Lee, twice imprisoned for bribing South Korea’s former president, will have his criminal record from his 2017 conviction wiped clean. But the grandson of Samsung’s founder still has unresolved legal woes related to an accounting scandal that could land him back in jail if he is found guilty. Lee, who goes by Jay Y. Lee in the West, has denied wrongdoing.