Lee Jae Yong: Samsung heir fined for drug use

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De facto boss Lee: convicted several times

Photo: JEON HEON-KYUN / EPA

Electronics company Samsung's heir Lee Jae Yong has been fined for illicit drug use.

The de facto boss of the company has to pay a fine of 70 million won, around 51,700 euros, as the news agency Yonhap reported.

Lee is said to have repeatedly taken the anesthetic propofol.

Propofol is usually used as an anesthetic, but it is also used as an intoxicant.

Pop star Michael Jackson died of a propofol overdose in 2009.

Lee is officially the vice president of Samsung, but is considered the top decision maker of the world's leading manufacturer of smartphones and memory chips.

He ranks 238th among the richest people in the world, according to Forbes.

The fine accounts for about 0.0006 percent of his net worth, which is estimated at around $ 10.2 billion.

Only since August back at large

It's not the first time Lee has been at odds with the law.

He has been imprisoned several times in the wake of a bribery and embezzlement scandal.

He was last paroled in August.

In January he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for corruption.

Numerous politicians and entrepreneurs had spoken out in favor of his early release.

Justice Minister Park Beom Kye justified the move by saying that the release would help the country's economic situation.

Samsung is by far the largest of the family-run corporate conglomerates in South Korea.

The annual business turnover corresponds to one fifth of the South Korean gross domestic product and is decisive for the economic success of the Asian country.

Lee has been at the helm of the electronics company for several years after his father, Lee Kun Hee, was unable to go about business because of a heart attack.

jlk / AFP