Courtesy: Samsung

Mumbai: A South Korean court today sentenced former chairman of Samsung Group Lee Kun-hee to a suspended 3-year jail and slapped a 110 billion won ($109.1 million) fine after finding him guilty of tax evasion charges.

The court, however, cleared Lee of charges of breach of trust and illegal issuance of convertible bonds.

Lee will not be going to jail now, since his prison sentence has been suspended for five years. 

South Korean prosecutors had sought a seven-year jail term and a 350 billion won fine on Lee, one of South Korea's most influential businessmen who led the country's biggest conglomerate for nearly 20 years.

Lee, 66, stepped down as Samsung group chief after being indicted in April. (See: Prosecutors seek 7-year jail for Samsung ex-chief)

In April, prosecutors found 4.5 trillion won ($4.5 billion) of Lee's personal assets under borrowed names and indicted him for evading taxes worth 112.8 trillion won ($112 million). Lee was also charged with failing to report to the securities authorities changes in the ownership of his stock assets.

Lee was indicted for evading taxes, breach of trust and violating the securities exchange law after a three-month probe into his family-run company. Prosecutors, however, said there was not enough evidence to make a bribery case.

The charge against Lee follows a three-month investigation into allegations of corruption and using illegal accounting techniques to transfer control of the business to his son. Though the investigations cleared the firm of a former executive's allegations that Samsung had used a multi-million dollar slush fund to bribe prosecutors and judges, prosecutors had indicted him with tax evasion last Thursday.

The breach of trust charge concerns the transfer of management control to his 39-year-old son Lee Jae-Yong through a convertible bond issue. Lee, currently facing trial had headed the group for two decades.

(See: Samsung chairman's resignation may mark the beginning of the end for chaebols)