The leader of South Korea’s largest family-run conglomerate has been embroiled in a legal battle for almost a decade.
Billionaire Jay Y. Lee–executive chairman of Samsung Electronics–was acquitted of accounting fraud and stock manipulation charges by a Seoul court on Monday, marking the latest victory for the leader of South Korea’s largest family-run conglomerate in his years-long effort to untangle himself from a messy succession scandal.
A Seoul Central District Court judge found Lee, 55, not guilty on charges of stock price manipulation and accounting fraud related to the 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates, Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, to help him cement control of the Samsung conglomerate.
“There is no proof of a crime in any of the indictments in this case,” said Park Jeong-je, presiding judge of the Seoul Central District Court, per local media reports. Samsung did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
