Samsung heir Jay Y. Lee at the Seoul District Court on Friday. Today, they are widely seen as sources of corruption and impediments to the country's progress. It also presents new challenges for Samsung, a constellation of businesses so vast that it accounts for about one-fifth of South Korea's exports all by itself. Lee's attorneys immediately said they would appeal, and experts said it would likely go all the way to the country's supreme court. In the wake of the corruption scandal - which led to the impeachment of Park - the current President, Moon Jae-in, campaigned on holding South Korea's corporate empires to account.

Source: The Telegraph August 25, 2017 21:11 UTC