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SEOUL, South Korea — A South Korean court docket acquitted Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong of monetary crimes in relation to a contentious merger between two Samsung associates in 2015 that tightened his grip over South Korea’s largest firm.
The ruling by the Seoul Central District Court docket on Monday may ease the authorized troubles surrounding the Samsung inheritor lower than two years after he was pardoned of a separate conviction of bribing a former president in a corruption scandal that toppled a earlier South Korean authorities.
The court docket stated the prosecution didn’t sufficiently show that the merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries was unlawfully performed with an goal to strengthen Lee’s management over Samsung Electronics.
Prosecutors had sought a five-year jail time period for Lee on the fees of inventory worth manipulation and accounting fraud. It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not they would attraction. Lee had denied wrongdoing over the present case, saying that the 2015 merger was a part of “regular enterprise exercise.”
Lee served 18 months in jail after being convicted in 2017 over separate bribery fees associated to the 2015 deal. He was initially sentenced for 5 years in jail for providing 8.6 billion received ($6.4 million) price of bribes to former President Park Geun-hye and her shut confidante to win authorities assist for the 2015 merger, which was key to strengthening his management over the Samsung enterprise empire.
Lee was launched on parole in 2021 and pardoned by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in 2022, in strikes that prolonged a historical past of leniency towards main white-collar crime in South Korea and preferential remedy for convicted tycoons.
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