Lee Jae-yong, the head of the Samsung Group empire, was convicted in a South Korean court Friday on corruption allegations. He was sentenced to five years in prison in connection to a bribery scandal that took down the nation's president, Park Geun-hye. Among other things, Lee was found to have paid Park bribes in exchange for favors.

The 49-year-old Lee, who is the heir to one of the world's largest companies, was also found guilty of perjury, embezzlement, and of hiding assets outside of South Korea following a six-month trial. The development comes two days after Samsung unveiled its latest flagship mobile phone, the Note8.

The court concluded that the billionaire Lee and four other Samsung executives paid $6.4 million in bribes to win governmental approval for the $8 billion merger of two Samsung affiliates in 2015—a complicated deal that included Samsung Electronics, the globe's biggest mobile phone and chipmaker. Samsung's empire is responsible for about 20 percent of South Korea's gross domestic product.

"This case is a matter of Lee Jae-yong and Samsung Group executives, who had been steadily preparing for Lee’s succession... bribing the president," Seoul Central District Court Judge Kim Jin-dong concluded.

Following the Korean War in the early 1950s, the Lee family and Samsung helped bring South Korea out of poverty. But the company's and family's relationship with the government also symbolized a corrupt connection among elite families and political leaders.

The defendant, who has been jailed since his indictment earlier this year, has maintained his innocence and is expected to appeal, said one of his attorneys, Song Wu-cheol. "The entire guilty verdict is unacceptable," he said.

It seems unlikely that Lee will get the same government favors as his father, Lee Kun-hee, Samsung's chairman, who was convicted two times of bribery and tax evasion but who served no jail time after being pardoned twice.

Moon Jae-in, the nation's new president, took office on a platform of keeping the South Korean nation's family-controlled corporate conglomerates in check.