The former chairman of Samsung escaped with a 110 billion won (£55 million) fine and a three-year suspended sentence today after being found guilty of tax evasion by a South Korean court.

Lee Kun-Hee, who had hidden more than £2 billion of assets, was acquitted on charges of breach of trust and the court decided his crimes did not justify a prison term.

Announcing his decision, Judge Min Byung-Hun, of the Seoul Central District Court, concluded: “His crime is not serious enough to sentence him to prison."

He added: “His tax evasion infringes on the nation’s taxing rights and undermines the public’s trust in fair taxation. But he didn’t seem to have bad intentions for short-term profit gains or internal stock trading.”

While convicting Lee for tax evasion and securities law violations, the court acquitted Lee on the more serious charge of breach of trust that had stemmed from allegations of dubious financial transactions to transfer corporate control to his son, Jae-Yong.

The 66-year-old tycoon had come to embody the South Korean economic miracle as over two decades he grew Samsung into the nation’s largest conglomerate and a global brand in the field of electronics, where it is the leading memory chip maker.

Lee, who quit as head of Samsung earlier this year following his indictment, appeared relieved after the verdict. “I’m sorry for causing trouble to the people,” he said.

The investigation into his activities was sparked by allegations by Kim Yong-Chul, a former Samsung lawyer turned whistleblower, that Samsung created a large slush fund to bribe prosecutors, officials and other influential figures.

In April, special prosecutors indicted Lee after a three-month probe into his family-run company.

Prosecutors said they found 4.5 trillion won of his personal assets under borrowed names and calculated that he had evaded taxes worth 112.8 billion won. Lee was also charged with failing to report to securities authorities changes in the ownership of his stock assets.

The Samsung conglomerate, founded by Lee’s father, consists of dozens of companies and has interests in businesses including electronics, shipbuilding, construction and life insurance. The group accounts for up to 20 per cent of South Korea’s exports.

The trial has captivated the attention of the public in South Korea, with activist groups forming both for and against the prosecution of Mr Lee and the group.

It is not the first time Mr Lee, who is the head of South Korea's richest family, has brushed with the law. In 1996, he was convicted of bribing two former South Korean Presidents, and received a two-year prison sentence, which was suspended for three years. He was later pardoned by President Kim Young Sam.

The outcome is the latest in a series of lenient sentences handed out by Korean courts to the country's captains of industry.

Last month, Chung Mong-Koo, the Hyundai chairman, was spared jail after the Seoul High Court upheld a suspended three-year prison sentence for embezzlement handed down last year by a lower court.

The judge concluded that Chung had used most of the embezzled funds for his company and "did not seek personal profit". His promise to donate 1 trillion won of personal assets to society was also a mitigating point.

The Seoul High Court was forced to issue a new sentence after prosecutors appealed one aspect of its earlier decision: that Chung should meet the community service requirement by writing newspaper articles and delivering lectures on lawful business management.

Under the new sentence, he was spared the rigours of writing a newspaper column and ordered to do 300 hours of community service in the form of environmental protection and other activities.

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