South Korea: Lee Jae-yong, the chairman of Samsung Electronics, was cleared by a South Korean court of financial offences related to a 2015 merger.
Lee was found not guilty on Monday by the Seoul Central District Court of accounting fraud and manipulating stock prices. This case was the most recent in a long-running scandal that has shaken South Korea. It revolves around high-level corruption and control of the nation’s largest company.
The terms of the 2015 merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, two Samsung affiliates, were allegedly created to give Lee more control over the business, according to the prosecution.
The prosecution, the court said, was unable to establish that the merger was done illegally in order to resolve a succession dispute. The attorneys had requested a five-year prison sentence. Whether they will appeal the decision is still up in the air.
Lee claimed the merger was a part of “normal business activity” and denied any wrongdoing.
In order to facilitate his inheriting the Samsung empire from his father, Lee Kun-hee, who passed away in 2020 after being hospitalised in 2014 due to a heart attack, Lee was found guilty in 2017 of bribing the president.
For offering bribes totalling $64 million to former President Park Geun-hye and her close confidante in order to gain government support, he received a five-year prison sentence.
The sentence was eventually reduced to 30 months, though. The justice department later stated that it had taken into account a number of factors, including public opinion and the individual’s good behaviour while in custody, before releasing him in the middle of 2021.
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