By Rhee So-eui
SEOUL (Reuters) - Former Samsung Group chief Lee Kun-hee,one of South Korea's most powerful businessmen, was handed a3-year suspended jail sentence on Wednesday for tax evasion,but was cleared of other charges.
The court also fined Lee 110 billion won (54 millionpounds), more than double the amount of taxes he evaded, butcleared him of charges of breach of trust and illegal issuanceof bonds aimed at transferring wealth to his children.
His jail sentence was suspended for five years.
Analysts and experts had expected Lee to escape prolongedjail time because judges have often been lenient to SouthKorean corporate leaders convicted of white collar crimes onthe basis that putting them behind bars could hurt business.
The decision not to incarcerate Lee comes only a monthafter the head of world's No. 6 automaker, Hyundai Motor, wasalso given a three-year suspended jail sentence after beingfound guilty of fraud.
"We ruled against an actual jail sentence as the degree ofillegality was not significant enough," Judge Min Byong-hoonsaid.
South Korean prosecutors had sought a seven-year jail termand a 350 billion won fine for Lee, who led the country'sbiggest conglomerate for nearly 20 years.
Forbes magazine in March estimated Lee's personal fortuneat around $2 billion, and his son's was assessed at around $1.7billion.
LENIENCY
"The special prosecutors actually made it easier forSamsung to get away," said Song Won-geun, an economicsprofessor at Jinju National University, referring to theirdecision not to charge Lee with the most damaging accusation ofbribery, settling instead with tax evasion.
Attempts to reach the prosecutors, who were not present atthe verdict, were unsuccessful.
"South Korea's tradition to be lenient towardswhite-collar, economy-related crimes has distorted the economicorder of the nation," said Rhie Sang-min of the People'sSolidarity for Participatory Democracy, which has long beencritical of the way the country's major conglomerates are run.
"It only further encourages economic crimes down the road."
A number of Samsung executives were present in the packedcourtroom and showed visible signs of relief when the suspendedverdict was read.
"I am sorry," Lee told reporters as he left the courthouse.Asked whether he was relieved at the verdict, he said: "I haveto continue to feel responsible."
A spokesman for the Samsung Group declined to comment.
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,but he remains a key shareholder in Samsung companies and hisfamily wields powerful influence over the group.
Samsung group's firms account for 20 percent of totalmarket capitalisation on the main board of the South Koreanstock exchange. The group has more than 250,000 employees andits annual 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.
($1=1008.2 Won)
(Additional reporting by Park Ju-min and Kim Jung-hyun;Editing by Marie-France Han and Jonathan Thatcher)
