‘I’m very sorry’: Samsung tycoon released from prison on parole

Electronics giant’s vice chairman, the world’s 202nd richest person had served seven months of a two-and-a-half-year term.

Jay Y Lee, the jailed vice chairman of the giant Samsung group, has walked free on parole after serving just seven months of a two-and-a-half-year jail term, the latest instance of South Korea freeing business leaders imprisoned for corruption or tax evasion on economic grounds. Lee, the 202nd richest person in the world according to Forbes magazine with a net worth of $11.4bn, was jailed in January for bribery, embezzlement and other offences in connection with a corruption scandal that brought down ex-South Korean President Park Geun-hye. But calls for his early release from politicians and business leaders grew in recent months over what they claimed was a possible leadership vacuum at South Korea’s biggest conglomerate.