Samsung’s heir and leader has been fined $60,000 for using the sedative propofol, the same drug that killed Michael Jackson

• Samsung heir and the company’s facto leader, Jay Y. Lee was fined 70 million South Korean won ($60,000) for using propofol.
• Lee said earlier he had received the drug 41 times from 2015 to 2020.
• Lee’s lawyers said he had taken the sedative for medical purposes.

Samsung’s heir and the company’s facto leader, Jay Y. Lee, was fined 70 million South Korean won ($60,000) for the illegal use of propofol, a sedative that killed Michael Jackson.

Lee had pleaded guilty to the charge earlier this month.

He said then he had received the injectable propofol 41 times from 2015 to 2020, Reuters reported. Lee’s lawyers said he had taken the sedative for medical purposes as he was under psychological stress following his father’s hospitalization and a trial that saw him convicted for bribery, according to the outlet.

Lee is the Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics. According to Reuters, he has been heading the electronics giant since his father, Lee Kun-hee, was hospitalized in 2014 following a heart attack.

Propofol is used as an anesthetic and sedative, and is the drug that killed Michael Jackson in 2009, according to Jackson’s autopsy report. Prosecutors said Jackson was prescribed propofol for insomnia, but the superstar died after a particularly strong dose.

Lee is among several notable South Koreans who have been prosecuted for their use of propofol, which was declared a psychotropic controlled substance in the country in 2011.

In 2013, three South Korean actresses – Park Si-yeon, Lee Seung-yeon, and Jang Mi-in-ae – were issued suspended sentences after being found guilty of using the drug for “non-medical purposes,” according to the South China Morning Post.