The Supreme Court of South Korea has acquitted Lee Jae-yong, the chairman of Samsung.

According to South Korean media reports, the Supreme Court of South Korea has today (July 17) pronounced in favor of two lower court rulings and upheld the acquittal of Lee Jae-yong, chairman of Samsung Electronics, for improper merger and accounting fraud.
Lee Jae-yong and several senior executives of Samsung Group were “suspected of manipulating the stock price of First Woollen Company and Samsung Property Company during their merger process under the group, aiming to help Lee Jae-yong acquire the business at the lowest cost and strengthen his influence within Samsung Group.” The prosecution filed a lawsuit in September 2020. Subsequently, on charges of “suspected unauthorized changes to the accounting standards for Samsung Biopharmaceuticals in 2015, inflating the company’s market value by 4.5 trillion won,” the prosecutors also charged Lee Jae-yong and other senior executives of Samsung with improper conduct.
The South Korean prosecutors accused Lee Jae-yong of violating the Capital Market Law and dereliction of duty, and requested a sentence of five years in prison and a fine of 500 million won (approximately 2.48 million RMB).
In February last year, the Seoul Central District Court made its first judgment on this case, finding that “the merger of the two companies under Samsung Group was not solely aimed at enhancing Lee Jae-yong’s influence within the group” and that “in general, it cannot be considered as improper conduct, and there is no evidence to prove that such actions caused losses to shareholders. All allegations in the case lack conclusive evidence,” thus determining that Lee Jae-yong and others were innocent. The prosecution disagreed with the verdict and lodged an appeal.
In February this year, the Seoul High Court upheld the first judgment, finding Lee Jae-yong innocent.
Lee Jae-yong, now 57, joined Samsung Electronics in 1991 and became vice chairman in 2012. In 2018, the Antitrust Enforcement Commission changed him to the head of Samsung Group. In October 2020, his father, then chairman Lee Kun-hee, passed away.