Samsung Leader Jay Y. Lee Receives Presidential Pardon for Bribery Conviction

“I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to make a new start,” Mr. Lee said in a statement following the announcement of the pardon. “I will work hard to fulfill my responsibility as an entrepreneur,” he said.

All major decisions across the Samsung conglomerate, which spans smartphones to insurance to electronic-vehicle batteries, require Mr. Lee’s signoff.

Mr. Lee, 54 years old, had won parole a year ago from a 30-month sentence tied to his bribery conviction. His release came with restrictions, such as a five-year employment ban and limits on overseas travel.

The pardon of the Samsung scion has enjoyed widespread public support in South Korea: Around 77% were in favor of the move, according to recent polling.

The pardon represents a rare popular move from South Korea’s conservative President

Yoon Suk

-yeol, who took office in May. He has been hindered by a string of controversies relating to his cabinet choices, his relocation of the presidential office and his decision last week to turn down an in-person meeting with visiting House Speaker

Nancy Pelosi.

Mr. Yoon’s approval ratings have sunk to 25%, according to a Gallup Korea poll released on Friday, a 28 percentage-point drop from their peak level in June.

Several other prominent South Korean business leaders, including Lotte Group Chairman

Shin Dong-bin,

received presidential pardons. More than 1,600 individuals received special pardons on Friday.

Mr. Yoon, at a Friday cabinet meeting, said he hoped the pardons would serve as an opportunity for the nation to come together and overcome the economic crisis.

South Korea’s big business groups welcomed the presidential pardons. The Korea Enterprises Federation said in a statement that the pardons gave entrepreneurs an opportunity to return to the forefront of management at a time of global economic tumult and rising competition.

The pardons will fall on South Korea’s Aug. 15 Liberation Day, which marks the end of Japanese colonial rule. The date has traditionally served as a time when business leaders convicted of white-collar crimes have often been absolved. Ahead of the Friday announcement, various civic groups issued a joint statement calling the pardon of Mr. Lee and other business leaders in the name of economic revival an action “tantamount to asking thieves to protect the warehouse.”

“Korea is a tolerant country only for those who disrupt and damage the economic order,” the joint statement read.

Over the past year, Mr. Lee has kept a relatively low profile. He went on some business trips to the U.S., Europe and the Middle East and represented Samsung at public events, including when President Biden visited one of the company’s chipmaking plants in South Korea in May.

Since October 2019, Mr. Lee has technically been an unregistered director at Samsung Electronics Co., where he holds the title of vice chairman. He hasn’t drawn a salary for years. Under the terms of his parole, any travel required special permission from South Korea’s justice ministry.

Mr. Lee is now free to take a more active management role, which could mean Samsung pursues more mergers and acquisitions or bold investments, industry experts say. It may also expedite steps for Mr. Lee to assume the conglomerate’s chairmanship, which has remained vacant since his father’s 2020 death.

Samsung may not move too quickly to reinstate Mr. Lee back to Samsung Electronics’ board or give him a salary because of potential public backlash, though he should take on a formal role with fiduciary or legal responsibility, said Mike Cho, a corporate-governance expert and business professor at Korea University.

“Jay Y. should be held responsible for his actions,” Mr. Cho said.

Important business tasks lie ahead for Mr. Lee. Samsung has committed hundreds of billions of dollars for investments in semiconductors, though the details of where and when to spend still need to be sorted out. South Korea’s biggest business conglomerate must also weigh big decisions relating to electric-vehicle batteries and biopharmaceuticals, two priority areas for Samsung.

“He’ll feel the need to begin and show results quickly, but the company’s long-term trajectory is what should matter most,” said Troy Stangarone, senior director at the Korea Economic Institute of America, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

Write to Jiyoung Sohn at jiyoung.sohn@wsj.com