Former President Lee Myung-bak sentenced to 15 years in prison

If 2017 was the year when former President Park Geun-hye and her administration suffered the consequences of her past misdeeds, 2018 was the year when South Korea was able to convict her predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, for crimes committed during his spell in office.Kim Mok-yeon has this report.2018 saw another former South Korean leader sentenced to jailtime.Former conservative president Lee Myung-bak, who ruled the country from 2008 to 2013, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for corruption charges, becoming the fourth former president to be put behind bars.The court found Lee guilty of seven out of 16 charges against him.The 77-year-old was convicted of accepting some 13 million U.S. dollars in bribes from some of the nation's biggest companies and state agencies, including tech giant Samsung Electronics and the National Intelligence Service.The court found that Lee had received over five million dollars from Samsung in the form of legal fees for a lawsuit in the U.S.The verdict said the retainer was paid in exchange for a presidential pardon for Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee, who was under investigation for tax evasion.The judge also said the defendant had embezzled some 22 million dollars as the de-facto owner of auto-parts company DAS.Lee had denied that he owned DAS, but the Seoul Central District Court confirmed that he was the real owner of the company.Lee flatly denied all charges against him and has filed for an appeal on the court's ruling.He is now preparing for his appeals trial, which is scheduled to kick off on January second.Kim Mok-yeon, Arirang News.