Career
He is well known as the older brother of the former South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak. He was convicted of bribery in 2013, and is currently serving a one-year prison sentence. During the controversial passing of the year 2011 budget bill, he is alleged to obtain an unusually enormous funding for his representative area, Pohang.
Political critics call this act a capitalization of "big brother" budget due to his close kinship ties with Lee Myung-bak.
Democratic Party assembly leader, Park Ji-weon, criticized this act as contributing to the unbalanced and unfair budget distribution all across South of Korea. He was criticized for making a jingoistic suggestion about marking the Taegeuk symbol on the food supplies for the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami victims.
He possessed a piece of land in secret between 1995 and 2003 under secret deal with Samho, a Korean company, and the National Intelligence Service. A personal aide of Lee Sang-deuk was arrested for receiving briberies that involved Lee Kuk-chul, chairman of the shipbuilding company, SLS Group.
