Samsung boss Lee Jae-yong has been cleared by South Korea’s high court docket of fraud prices, concluding a years-long authorized battle 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, had been accused of utilizing inventory and accounting fraud to attempt to acquire management of the agency.
In its last verdict, the Supreme Court docket in Seoul upheld a not responsible verdict, after Lee was acquitted of all prices in two earlier trials.
The case drew widespread scrutiny of the expertise big, because the nation grapples with company corruption scandals involving its highly effective family-run conglomerates generally known as chaebols.
“Right this moment, the Supreme Court docket has clearly confirmed by way of its last ruling that the merger of Samsung C&T and the accounting remedy of Samsung Biologics have been lawful,” mentioned Samsung’s legal professionals on Thursday.
“We sincerely thank the court docket for its sensible judgment following an intensive five-year trial course of.”
The Samsung boss confronted allegations of fraud within the wake of a merger that prosecutors mentioned was designed to shift management of the corporate from his father, Lee Kun-hee. His father suffered a coronary heart assault in 2014 and confronted authorized troubles of his personal and died in 2020.
The youthful Lee was first arrested in 2017 on prices of bribery to win the federal government’s help for a merger between two Samsung subsidiaries.
Over the course of his authorized issues, he had separate jail phrases minimize brief – one on account of a particular presidential pardon when he was on parole from jail.
On the time, the federal government mentioned the chief of the nation’s largest firm was wanted to spearhead South Korea’s financial restoration within the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2024, a district court docket cleared Lee of all prices linked to the merger value round $8bn (£5.97bn) between two of its subsidiary corporations.
Lee was cleared once more after prosecutors appealed the case within the Excessive Court docket.
Authorized circumstances over the previous decade have added to Samsung’s troubles because it struggles with intensifying competitors and underwhelming inventory market efficiency.
