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Samsung boss Lee Jae-yong has been cleared of fraud charges by South Korea's Supreme Court, concluding a years-long legal battle over his role in a 2015 merger deal. The court upheld a not guilty verdict, acquitting Lee of all charges after two previous trials had also exonerated him. Lee, the grandson of Samsung's founder, has been the de facto head of the company since 2014.
The case drew widespread scrutiny of the technology giant, as the country grappled with corporate corruption scandals involving its powerful family-run conglomerates known as chaebols.
Today, the Supreme Court has clearly confirmed through its final ruling that the merger of Samsung C&T and the accounting treatment of Samsung Biologics were lawful," said Samsung's lawyers on Thursday.
"We sincerely thank the court for its wise judgment following a thorough five-year trial process."
Prosecutors accused Lee and his advisors of inflating the value of his pharmaceutical firm, Samsung Biologics, through fraudulent accounting. They argued that the higher value allowed him to buy a larger share of a key Samsung subsidiary in a 2015 merger deal, which secured his succession.
Prosecutors also said the merger was designed to shift control of the company from Lee's father, Lee Kun-hee. His father, who faced legal troubles of his own, suffered a heart attack in 2014 and died in 2020.
The younger Lee was first arrested in 2017 for bribing an advisor to former President Park Geun-hye to smooth his succession at Samsung. Over the course of his legal problems, he had separate jail terms cut short - one due to a special presidential pardon when he was on parole from prison.
At the time, the government said the leader of the country's biggest company was needed to spearhead South Korea's economic recovery in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2024, a district court cleared Lee of all charges linked to the merger worth around $8bn (£5.97bn) of two of its subsidiaries. Lee was cleared again after prosecutors appealed the case in the High Court.
The court's decision was welcomed by the country's business community.
