Samsung Group's de facto leader and vice chairman, Lee Jae-yong (aka, Jay Y. Lee), was sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of bribery, embezzlement, capital flight, and perjury charges. Today, only six months after his sentencing, Lee is out of prison.

In a hearing monday, a South Korean appeals court cut Lee's original sentence in half, to two-and-a-half years. It also suspended the charges against Lee for bribery and embezzlement, which allows Lee to walk free. For now, Lee is looking at four years of probation, though he said he plans to appeal the remaining guilty verdicts.

Lee Jae-yong's conviction was part of a scandal that saw the head of Samsung bribe the then-president of South Korea, Park Geun-hye, to approve a merger of two Samsung Group affiliates. The fallout led to Park's impeachment, making her South Korea's first elected leader to be forced from office early.

So far "convictions" like this have been par for the course for South Korea, where Samsung's empire is responsible for about 20 percent of the country's GDP. Lee's father and the chairman of Samsung Group, Lee Kun-hee, was convicted of bribery in 1996 and of tax evasion and breach of trust in 2009; in both cases, he was never arrested or served jail time. Later, even his criminal record was erased through presidential pardons. South Korea's current president, Moon Jae-in, ran on a platform that promised to rein in power chaebols like Samsung, but it doesn't sound like that is happening.

In a statement, Park Yong-jin, a National Assembly member from Moon’s party, called the ruling "truly disappointing... We confirmed once again that Samsung is above the law and the court,” Park Yong-jin said.