Lee Sang-hoon, the chairman of Samsung Electronics, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for breaching labor union-related laws when he served as chief financial officer of the company, Yonhap news agency reports. The Seoul Central District court gave the same sentence to Samsung Electronics VP Kang Kyung-hoon, who was sentenced to 16 months in prison last week for sabotaging labor activities at another Samsung unit.
Both were detained after the rulings. Of the 32 people indicted in the case, including current and former Samsung employees, suppliers and labor management professionals, 26 were found guilty.
While the extent and details of their charges varied, the Samsung executives, who had previously worked at the group's now-defunct elite group, were found guilty of masterminding plans to deter labor activities, the report said. Prosecutors had earlier indicted them on charges of leading and engaging in group-wide efforts to neutralize the labor union by targeting members and leaking sensitive personal data.
The jury said there were "countless documents" detailing tactics to hamper labor activities that were distributed to numerous affiliates by the elite unit, adding the documents themselves "acknowledge the plotting and execution of and collusion in the crime."
The ruling comes six years after the activities first surfaced in 2013, when Justice Party politician Sim Sang-jeung unveiled a 150-page document on Samsung's labor management strategy.
Last week, a different panel of judges at the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Samsung Electronics' Kang to 16 months for sabotaging labor activities at Everland, an amusement park run by Samsung C&T.
Samsung declined to comment on either ruling.
