S. Korean court docket acquits Samsung leader over 2015 merger case

A South Korean court docket acquitted Samsung Electronics leader Lee Jae-yong on Monday of a raft of crimes related to a arguable 2015 merger, Lee’s legal professionals stated.

Yonhap information company reported that the court docket stated it did “now not acknowledge aim to hurt shareholders” throughout the merger, which critics had claimed used to be unhealthy worth and achieved most commonly to verify a easy third-generational energy switch to Lee, a scion of Samsung’s founding circle of relatives.

“Solidifying Lee’s keep an eye on and making sure his succession wasn’t the one function of the merger,” the court docket dominated, consistent with the Yonhap information company, including that there have been “no validations to turn out prosecution’s fee”.

The decision from the Seoul Central District Courtroom clears Lee of a number of fees, together with inventory value rigging, breach of accept as true with and accounting fraud, within the 2015 merger between Samsung C&T—a building and engineering company—and Cheil Industries.

“Nowadays’s verdict has made it transparent the merger used to be professional. We sincerely thank the court docket for its even handed judgment,” Lee’s legal professionals stated in a short lived observation.

Critics argue that the 2015 takeover intentionally undervalued the development company’s inventory value, unfairly affecting its shareholders.

Lee, who has already served prison time over a high-level fraud and embezzlement case, is the present govt chairman of Samsung Electronics, the crown jewel of the sprawling Samsung crew.

Within the deal, 3 Samsung C&T stocks have been presented for one Cheil percentage, a transaction prosecutors claimed had “undermined the basics of the marketplace”, consistent with an previous Yonhap record.

Within the merger procedure “more than one unlawful acts have been mobilized… for the sleek succession of the crowd leader”, the prosecution stated in its ultimate argument in November, hard a five-year sentence.

“A construction through which corporate’s proprietor teams are allowed to pursue non-public hobby is the most important reason for the worsening Korea bargain,” the prosecution stated, relating to the perceived international undervaluing of South Korean companies.

“We really feel totally distressed it used to be achieved through Samsung, the rustic’s number-one corporate.”

Lee stated in court docket he had now not been pushed through “non-public hobby within the merger”.

“I swear I had by no means imagined expanding my stake on the expense of inflicting injury to different shareholders,” he used to be reported through Yonhap as pronouncing in his ultimate argument.

‘Unfastened go’

One observer advised AFP they have been “appalled” through the court docket’s resolution to acquit Lee, pronouncing he have been given a “unfastened go”.

“The court docket seems to have primarily based its ruling at the grounds that one of the vital proof towards Lee used to be accrued with out due procedure,” stated Oh Se-hyung, director of civic crew Voters’ Coalition for Financial Justice.

“However that by myself must now not have given Lee a unfastened go and I query whether or not the prosecution did its very best to carry him responsible,” Oh stated.

The decision got here nearly 3 years after the primary court docket listening to within the case, with greater than 100 hearings held since.

It’s more likely to be a boon for Samsung Electronics, one analyst advised AFP.

“Lee’s acquittal will assist Samsung Electronics, which gives round 60 % of all reminiscence chips within the international marketplace, consider surroundings long-term funding plans,” Kim Dae-jong, a professor of commercial management at Sejong College in Seoul, advised AFP.

Lee spent 18 months in prison after a fraud and embezzlement conviction that adopted a sweeping investigation that still introduced down former president Park Geun-hye in 2017.

Lee used to be launched on parole in August 2021, having served part his sentence.

He returned to control in a while after his liberate and used to be formally named govt chairman of Samsung Electronics in October 2022, two months after South Korea’s president pardoned him for the embezzlement and corruption convictions.

© 2024 AFP