A Seoul court has ordered Lee Jae-yong, the de facto leader of Samsung Group, to pay a fine of 70 million won for illegally injecting the intravenous hypnotic drug Propofol.
The Seoul Central District Court on Tuesday convicted Lee of violating the narcotics law, ordering a fine of 70 million won and a forfeiture of 17-point-02 million won, in line with what was sought by the prosecution.
In delivering its ruling, the court said the sentence should reflect the gravity and high dosage of drug involved, noting that the defendant holds high social influence. The court also took into consideration that Lee confessed and has no previous record of the same crime.
Lee was accused of habitually injecting Propofol at least 41 times at a cosmetic surgery clinic in Seoul for non-medical purposes between January 2015 and May 2020.
Lee has claimed that all of the injections were administered under a doctor's prescription during dermatology treatment.