Samsung boss Lee Jae-yong has been cleared via South Korea’s most sensible courtroom of fraud fees, concluding a years-long prison fight over his position in a 2015 merger deal.
Lee, the grandson of Samsung’s founder and the de facto head of the corporate since 2014, have been accused of the use of inventory and accounting fraud to take a look at to achieve regulate of the company.
In its ultimate verdict, the Very best Court docket in Seoul upheld a no longer responsible verdict, after Lee used to be acquitted of all fees in two previous trials.
The case drew common scrutiny of the generation massive, as the rustic grapples with company corruption scandals involving its robust family-run conglomerates referred to as chaebols.
“Lately, the Very best Court docket has obviously showed thru its ultimate ruling that the merger of Samsung C&T and the accounting remedy of Samsung Biologics had been lawful,” stated Samsung’s legal professionals on Thursday.
“We sincerely thank the courtroom for its sensible judgment following a radical five-year trial procedure.”
The Samsung boss confronted allegations of fraud within the wake of a merger that prosecutors stated used to be designed to shift regulate of the corporate from his father, Lee Kun-hee. His father suffered a center assault in 2014 and confronted prison troubles of his personal and died in 2020.
The more youthful Lee used to be first arrested in 2017 on fees of bribery to win the federal government’s make stronger for a merger between two Samsung subsidiaries.
Over the process his prison issues, he had separate prison phrases lower brief – one because of a distinct presidential pardon when he used to be on parole from jail.
On the time, the federal government stated the chief of the rustic’s largest corporate used to be had to spearhead South Korea’s financial restoration within the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2024, a district courtroom cleared Lee of all fees related to the merger value round $8bn (£5.97bn) between two of its subsidiary corporations.
Lee used to be cleared once more after prosecutors appealed the case within the Prime Court docket.
Prison instances during the last decade have added to Samsung’s troubles because it struggles with intensifying festival and underwhelming inventory marketplace efficiency.
