SEOUL (Reuters) - Former Samsung Group chief Lee Kun-hee, one of South Korea's most powerful businessmen, was handed a suspended 3-year jail sentence on Wednesday for tax evasion but was cleared of other charges.
A lower court also fined Lee 110 billion won (54.5 millionpounds) but cleared him of charges of breach of trust andillegal issuance of convertible bonds. His sentence wassuspended for five years.
The suspended verdict was widely expected and comes only amonth after the head of world No. 6 automaker Hyundai Motor wasgiven a suspended three-year jail sentence for fraud.
South Korean prosecutors had sought a seven-year jail termand a 350 billion won fine from Lee, who led the country'sbiggest conglomerate for nearly 20 years.
Lee, 66, stepped down in April from his top roles in thegroup and flagship Samsung Electronics, the world's leadingmaker of memory chips and LCD screens, after being indicted.
Despite his resignation, Lee remains a key shareholder inSamsung companies and his family wields a powerful influenceover the group.
A spokesman for Samsung Group declined to comment whenasked whether the company was planning to appeal the verdict.
Analysts and experts had expected Lee to escape anyprolonged jail time because judges have often been lenient tocorporate leaders convicted of white collar crimes on the viewthat putting them behind bars could hurt business activities.
Samsung group's firms account for 20 percent of totalmarket capitalisation on the main board of the South Koreanbourse. The group has more than 250,000 employees and itsannual revenues of $160 billion are around the size ofSingapore's gross domestic product.
A special prosecutor in January launched a probe intocorruption allegations after a former top legal executive atthe group said some of its top management hid money and kept aslush fund to bribe politicians, prosecutors and officials.
The prosecutor also indicted nine other top executives, butfound no evidence to support the bribery allegations.
(Additional reporting by Park Ju-min)
(Reporting by Rhee So-eui; editing by Marie-France Han andJonathan Thatcher)
