
Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong was acquitted on Monday (Feb. 3) by the Seoul High Court of charges related to his management succession, according to multiple media reports.
The court dismissed accounting fraud charges filed by prosecutors in September 2020, upholding a previous acquittal from February of last year.
In addition to Lee, thirteen other defendants, including former Samsung executives, were also found not guilty of similar charges.
Lee faced indictment concerning a controversial 2015 merger between Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T. Prosecutors alleged that irregularities led to a devaluation of Samsung C&T in the stock market while inflating the valuation of Cheil, which Lee controlled at the time.
The merger involved a share exchange where three Samsung C&T shares were offered for each Cheil share, facilitating Lee's inheritance of management control over Samsung Group. This maneuver allowed him to oversee Samsung C&T, a key shareholder in Samsung Electronics. The Samsung family has historically maintained control of the conglomerate through a limited number of shares via cross-shareholding.
Additionally, Lee faced charges related to suspected accounting fraud at Samsung BioLogics, a biopharmaceutical subsidiary of Cheil.
(Source: Xinhua)
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