The Seoul Central District Court acquitted Samsung chairman Lee Jae-yong of fraud charges on Monday (Feb. 5) in relation to the contentious merger of Samsung affiliates Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries in 2015.
Initially, Lee was accused of stock price manipulation and accounting fraud for committing to the merger as a way of consolidating his power in an already powerful South Korean company, the Associated Press reported.
Lee's acquittal could also ease the legal troubles surrounding him two years after he was pardoned of a separate conviction in 2017 of bribing former South Korean President Park Geun-hye in a corruption scandal toppling her administration and giving way for the election of Moon Jae-in as president. He served 18 years in prison before he was released on parole in 2021 and pardoned by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in 2022.
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The court said that the prosecution - who proposed a five-year prison sentence for the Samsung boss - failed to sufficiently prove that the merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries was unlawfully conducted with an aim to strengthen Lee's control over Samsung Electronics. Prosecutors also argued that Samsung C&T's stock market devaluation resulted in losses for other investors, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily.
On the other hand, Lee's legal team denied their client's alleged wrongdoing over the current case, saying that the 2015 merger was part of "normal business activity."
Yoon's move to pardon Lee was part of a controversy in South Korea about authorities being lenient to major white-collar crimes in the country and of preferential treatment for convicted tycoons.
