FINAL VERDICT ON CORRUPTION SCANDAL

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The Supreme Court has delivered a final verdict on a 2016 massive influence-peddling scandal, involving former President Park Geun-hye, her confidante Choi Soon-sil and Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong. All three rulings were rejected and returned to lower courts for retrial. However, this ruling does not mean that the three people were acquitted. The top court remained bribery charges against the former president while accusing the Samsung heir of seeking business favors in return for bribes.

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The Supreme Court has returned all ruling related to the 2016 influence-peddling scandal to the Seoul High Court. Although the defendants were found not guilty on some counts, most of the charges were maintained as-is. The top court decided that the amount of bribes Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong gave to Choi Soon-sil is five billion won more than the initially acknowledged amount at 3.6 billion won, as the three horses Samsung provided to Choi and the conglomerate's donations to her family's sports foundation must be also accounted for as bribes. The justices explained that the conglomerate had provided the bribes to Choi to help facilitate Lee's succession of leadership and full control at Samsung.

[Soundbite] KIM MYEONG-SU(CHIEF JUSTICE) : "It goes against the law if the fact that Samsung attempted to consolidate Lee's business control and the former president was aware of it is not taken into account."

The top court upheld appeals court rulings on the amount of bribes the former president and Choi had received. However, it ordered the appellate court to retry the case for former president Park Geun-hye on charges regarding the massive graft scandal that led to her removal from office in 2017, as bribery charges against a sitting public official must be separate from other charges during trial in accordance with the public official election act. Observers say that Park's jail term could increase in the retrial. For Choi Soon-sil, the Supreme Court dismissed charges of coercion in demanding donations to conglomerates. Previously, the appellate court sentenced Park to 25 years in prison and a fine of 20 billion won. Choi was slapped with 20 years in prison and 20 billion won in fines. The Samsung heir was sentenced to two and a half years in prison with a suspension of four years.