SEOUL: Leaders of South Korea’s largest conglomerates urged President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday to pardon Jay Y. Lee, the jailed vice chairman of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, to keep up the nation’s edge within the chip industry.
The plea was made throughout a luncheon between Moon and chiefs of 4 main enterprise empires – Samsung, Hyundai, LG and SK – designed to spice up financial cooperation after Moon and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed to bolster the worldwide provide chain for high-tech manufacturing.
Lee, the 52-year-old inheritor of the world’s largest memory chip maker and second-largest contract chip producer, has been sentenced to 30 months in jail after being convicted of bribery, embezzlement and different offences.
SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won requested Moon to think about a petition for Lee’s launch that was submitted in April collectively by 5 enterprise lobbies together with the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry headed by Chey, in accordance with Moon’s spokeswoman Park Kyung-mee.
Moon replied that he “understood” difficulties for the businesses, Park mentioned. He didn’t elaborate, however appeared extra open to the concept after merely saying at a information convention in March that he would think about public opinion earlier than deciding.
Moon had vowed to not pardon critical financial crimes comparable to bribery and embezzlement earlier than taking workplace in 2017.
Enterprise leaders have highlighted the necessity for Lee to be energetic to retain South Korea’s main place within the chip business amid world shortages.
“Semiconductors require large-scale funding selections, and leaders can solely make such selections in a swift method,” mentioned Kinam Kim, vice chairman and CEO of Samsung’s machine enterprise.
Biden has referred to as for higher South Korean funding, and Samsung confirmed a plan to funnel $17 billion into a brand new plant for chip contract manufacturing in the US throughout Moon’s journey to Washington.
Lee is in a singular place overseeing all three of Samsung’s divisions — chips, smartphones and residential home equipment, mentioned Park Jea-gun, a professor at Hanyang College in Seoul.
“It is arduous to make massive enterprise selections if not the proprietor,” Park mentioned.
However the Folks’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, an activist group that resists pardoning chaebol chiefs, issued an announcement saying releasing Lee would “abuse the authorized system to justify company crimes.”
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