Jay Y. Lee, Samsung’s de facto chief, has been appointed the corporate’s govt chairman, the corporate’s board of administrators introduced Wednesday. The transfer comes a bit of greater than two months after Lee was granted a presidential pardon for his position in a corruption scandal that rocked South Korea.

The appointment was granted resulting from “the present unsure international enterprise setting and the urgent want for stronger accountability and enterprise stability,” the board stated in an announcement.

Samsung introduced Lee’s appointment after posting a 31% decline in third-quarter revenue, its first year-over-year quarterly decline in practically three years.

Lee was Samsung’s vice chairman and had acted as the corporate’s de facto head since his father, Lee Kun-Hee, suffered a coronary heart assault in 2014. He confronted as much as 12 years in jail after being charged with bribery in 2017. The case was a part of a corruption scandal that led to the impeachment of former South Korean President Park Geun-hye. 

Lee was granted parole and launched from jail in August 2021, after serving two and a half years on a five-year sentence on bribery, perjury and embezzlement fees. The pardon, granted in August 2022 by South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, was extensively seen as a largely symbolic transfer that might enable him to take management of the electronics large.

Lee had all the time denied the allegations towards him in court docket, however his convictions would have prevented him from having the ability to work for 5 years and restricted his abroad journey beneath Korean regulation.

Samsung representatives did not instantly reply to a request for added remark.