Lee was sentenced to two and a half year in prison by the Seoul High Court on Monday in a retrial of a bribery case involving former President Park Geun-hye.
The Seoul High Court gave Lee, Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics Co., the prison term for bribing Park and her longtime friend, Choi Soon-sil, to win government support for a smooth transition of managerial power at the tech giant
"Samsung is a group with such overwhelming power that it is said that Korean companies are divided into Samsung and non-Samsung," prosecutors were quoted as saying during the final hearing.
