CJ chairman back to jail after treatment

June 1, 2014 Leave a comment

Updated : 2014-05-30 20:49

CJ chairman back to jail after treatment

By Kim Tae-gyu

CJ Group Chairman Lee Jay-hyun was taken back to prison Tuesday after two weeks of treatment at Seoul National University Hospital, but his health is still not good, a group official said Thursday.
“He is not in critical condition, having been stabilized early this month. But he is too weak to remain jailed,” he said. “He is so frail that he cannot even lift a cup on his own.”
The remarks are similar to those of Lee’s lawyers, who said he has yet to fully recover after a kidney transplant last year.
The 53-year-old was imprisoned after he was found guilty of embezzlement, breach of fiduciary duty and tax evasion earlier this year by a Seoul district court. Sentenced to four years in prison, Lee filed an appeal.
“Originally, we worried about viral infections after the kidney transplant. However, he is suffering from immunity rejection responses, which might claim his life,” one of Lee’s attorneys said during a court hearing Tuesday.
“Afraid of death, Lee cannot sleep even after taking sleeping pills. His weight, which once approached 80 kilograms, almost halved to less than 50.”
The head of the country’s 14th largest conglomerate, which has operations in food, media and entertainment, had a kidney transplanted from his wife in August after he was paroled for the operation.
Lee has long suffered from chronic renal failure due to a rare degenerative muscular disorder, and his condition got worse in 2013 when he was charged.
Thereafter, he remained hospitalized. After being convicted in February for embezzling a total of 60.4 billion won from CJ Corp. to create a slush fund, he was not sent to jail due to concerns about his health.
But he was imprisoned in early May upon the expiration of his medical parole.
The country’s sixth-richest man was hospitalized once again midway through this month because his health abruptly deteriorated.
Lee is a grandson of Samsung Group founder Lee Byung-chull.

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