Samsung Electronics vice chairman Jay Y. Lee received a presidential pardon Friday for his role in a 2016 political scandal, a move the South Korean government says is necessary so the country's largest chaebol can help steady the national economy.

South Korea's pension fund head has been arrested in a probe into alleged corruption involving electronic firm Samsung and the country's president.

The influence-peddling scandal shadowing South Korean President Park Geun-hye is raising fresh questions about decades of cozy ties between the nation's big conglomerates and those in power.

Toshiba on Friday said extensive restructuring helped the Japanese conglomerate swing to its first operating profit in six quarters, signaling recovery from a $1.3 billion accounting scandal that unmasked underperforming operations.

Japan's Toshiba plans to more than halve its capital base, a move that may enable it to resume paying dividends quicker and get a fresh capital injection as it aims to recover from a $1.3 billion accounting scandal last year.

Toshiba said Friday that it has cut 14,450 jobs worldwide, roughly 30% more than planned, as it struggles to get back on its feet following a damaging book-cooking scandal.

Toshiba, reeling from a $1.3 billion accounting scandal, said it intends to ask for a new JPY300 billion ($2.49 billion) credit line by the end of January to fund a large-scale restructuring.

Toshiba is looking to cut up to 7,000 jobs, as it looks to streamline operations in the wake of an accounting scandal, the Nikkei business daily reported.

Toshiba on Friday said it is considering selling a minority stake in its semiconductor business to raise funds in the wake of a drawn-out accounting scandal.

Toshiba is in talks to sell its image sensor business to Sony for about Y20bn ($165m) in the latest effort by the lossmaking nuclear-to-semiconductor conglomerate to raise cash after a $1.9bn accounting scandal.

Japan's stock exchange ordered Toshiba to pay a record fine of Y91.2m ($750,000) in the wake of a $2bn accounting scandal, marking another reputational blow to the lossmaking nuclear-to-semiconductor conglomerate.

Accounting irregularities have plunged the Japanese conglomerate company Toshiba into a crisis, with several key board members stepping down, including CEO Hisao Tanaka.

Olympus, the Japanese camera maker recovering from an accounting scandal, has announced a five-year plan that includes cutting 2,700 jobs.

Many South Koreans joke they inhabit "the Republic of Samsung." But a one-time insider at the powerful Korean conglomerate has launched a scathing attack on his former employer, saying Korean politicians and media turn a blind-eye to the company's misdeeds.

Lee Kun-hee is to be pardoned so he can return to the International Olympics Committee and help South Korea's bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics. The former chairman of Samsung was convicted of embezzlement and tax evasion.

The trial against former Infineon CEO Ulrich Schumacher for alleged corruption has been closed after the prosecutor has dropped his charges. A formal acquittal is expected for later this week.

A court in August had sentenced Lee Kun-Hee to a suspended three-year prison term and a fine of 110 billion won (91.2 million dollars) for his role in a 1999 bond issue.

A scandal involving the chairman of parent Samsung did no harm to the reputation of Samsung Electronics, which won the title of South Korea's overall most-admired company in the Asia 200 survey.

Satyam Computer Services began a bidding process Monday to sell a 51% stake in itself, and two potential buyers quickly confirmed that they would join the race for the scandal-tainted outsourcer.

Il Ung Kim, the sixth Samsung executive to plead guilty, has agreed to serve 14 months in a US prison, the longest imprisonment ever by a foreign defendant charged with price fixing in the US, according to the US' Department of Justice (DoJ).