The heir and de facto boss of Samsung company were granted a presidential pardon on Friday, continuing South Korea's long record of pardoning business titans guilty of economic misconduct.

Lee Jae-Yong, convicted of bribery and embezzlement in January of last year, will be "reinstated" so that he can "contribute to overcoming the economic crisis," according to Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon.

Lee — the 278th wealthiest person in the world, according to Forbes, with a net worth of $7.9 billion — was paroled in August 2021 after serving 18 months in prison, which was just over half of his original sentence.

A five-year limitation on post-prison employment will be lifted by Friday's pardon, allowing him to return to work in its entirety.

"Due to the global economic crisis, the dynamism and vitality of the national economy have deteriorated, and the economic slump is feared to be prolonged," the Justice Ministry stated.

The ministry stated that the pardon was granted so that Lee, along with other high-level executives obtaining pardons on Friday, may "lead the country's continuous growth engine through active investment in technology and job creation,"

Lee, 54, was pardoned alongside three other business people, including Shin Dong-bin, chairman of the Lotte Group, who was sentenced to a suspended two-and-a-half-year prison term in 2018 for bribery.

According to the government, in advance of Liberation Day on Monday, on the pardon list were 1,693 individuals, including inmates with terminal diseases and those nearing the end of their sentences.

The occasion commemorates Japan's 1945 World War II surrender, which liberated Korea from decades of colonial domination. Hundreds of inmates are routinely pardoned on this day each year.

Above the law?

Lee is the vice-chairman of Samsung Electronics, the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. The conglomerate's total revenue represents almost one-fifth of South Korea's gross domestic product.

Former president Park Geun-hye was removed from office due to his participation in an enormous corruption scandal.

In the past, some prominent South Korean tycoons have been charged with bribery, embezzlement, tax evasion, and other offenses.

However, several of those convicted have since had their sentences reduced or suspended on appeal. Some — notably the late Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee, who was convicted twice — have been granted presidential pardons for their "contribution to the national economy."

The Samsung group is the largest family-controlled chaebols that dominate business in South Korea, the twelfth-largest economy in the world.

President Yoon Suk-yeol stated on Friday that the pardons were intended to improve the lives of "ordinary people who have been affected by the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic."

He continued, "I hope this special pardon will serve as an opportunity for all South Koreans to work together to overcome the economic crisis,"

Vladimir Tikhonov, professor of Korean studies at the University of Oslo, told AFP that the pardons gave the impression to prominent corporations that they were not "constrained by any legal norms."

He said, "And the government is more or less doing their bidding and creating conditions for capital accumulation by corporations,"

More legal woes

Lee still faces a separate trial on accounting fraud charges relating to the 2015 merger of two Samsung companies.

In May, he was excused from a hearing in that trial so that he could welcome US Vice President Joe Biden when he began a trip to South Korea by visiting Samsung's chip plant with President Yoon.

His pardon follows Samsung's announcement of a large 450 trillion won ($356 billion) investment plan for the next five years, which aims to make the company a leader in various industries — from semiconductors to biologics — and create 80,000 new jobs.

In addition to employing about 20,000 employees in the United States, the company is now constructing a new semiconductor plant in Texas, which is slated to open in 2024.

However, Lee's incarceration has not hindered the company's success; in July of last year, the company reported a 70 percent increase in second-quarter profits, with a coronavirus-driven shift to remote work driving demand for gadgets containing its memory chips.

"Samsung operated perfectly well without any pardon," Tikhonov told AFP.

The pardon weakens the rule of law, which has the potential to be more destructive than beneficial to the functioning of any market-based economy.