ALBAWABA – Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman, Jay Y. Lee was acquitted of accounting fraud and stock manipulation charges as a Seoul court found him not guilty, citing lack of proof, after he was arrested in 2017 in accusation of manipulating a merger of Samsung C&T Corp, Samsung’s construction and engineering arm, and Cheil Industries Inc. back in 2015, with Jay Y. Lee denying any wrongdoings.
After Elliot Associates, an American hedge fund with 7.1 percent ownership of Samsung C&T had opposed the 2015 merger in court, Jay Y. Lee was later accused of bribing former president Park Geun-Hye and her confidante, Choi Soon-Sil, in hopes of getting approval for the merger, he was arrested in 2017 and served 18 months before being released and pardoned in 2022 as the new and current president Yoon Suk Yeol and his government deemed Jay Y. Lee is needed to help the country recover from "national economic crisis".
Last November, prosecutors brought charges against the Samsung’s heir regarding the 2015 $8 billion merger, seeking a five-year jail time sentence on accounts of fraud and stock manipulation that would help him secure high control over Samsung Electronics, arguing that Jay Y. Lee, among other former executives, violated several Capital Market Act laws that benefitted them at the cost of smaller investors.
While the prosecutors said "The defendants undermined the foundation of the capital market to ease the leader's succession", Jay Y. Lee has denied any wrongdoings in the trial that lasted over three years, with the court reaching a decision on Monday that with inadmissible evidence and lack of proof, Jay Y. Lee is innocent and is able to go back to leading Samsung.
Samsung Electronics' new Chairman Jay Y. Lee leaves after his trial related to violation of Capital Market Financial Investment Business Act, at the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul on October 27, 2022. (AFP)
Investors reacted to the news right away, with Samsung’s shares dropping 1.2 percent lower after the verdict, which would emphasize the legal pressure’s effect on the global company, especially after announcing their last quarterly financial report, which added a fourth quarter in profit downturn streak in a highly competitive and tense tech market through declining demands.
