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The once-disgraced heir to the sprawling Samsung empire was on Thursday named top executive of its most important business, two months after South Korea’s president pardoned him for embezzlement and corruption convictions.
The board of Samsung Electronics, one of the world’s biggest smartphone and chipmakers, confirmed Lee Jae-yong’s formal ascent -- though he had already been de facto leader since his father’s heart attack in 2014.
Critics have said Lee taking the reins so soon after his year and a half in jail is yet another example in South Korea’s history of convicted business leaders getting off the hook on economic grounds.
The Samsung Electronics board promoted Lee to executive chairman to give the company “stronger accountability and business stability” due to the “current uncertain global business environment”, the company said in a statement Thursday.
Samsung is the most powerful of South Korea’s “chaebols”, family-controlled empires that dominate business, and it contributes an estimated fifth of the country’s GDP.
