Jay Y. Lee, the current chairman of Samsung, was cleared of fraud by the highest court of South Korea, officially dismissing all charges that were brought against the man. Lee was accused of acounting fraud and stock manipulation charges that took place during a merger between two Samsung subsidiaries in 2015.
In 2017, Lee was sentenced to five years in prison, after he was convicted of bribing public officials who had intimate knowledge of the merger. However, The Supreme Court of South Korea overturned that decision and ordered a re-trial, a decision that instead saw Lee handed a 30-month prison sentence, 18 of which he served before being paroled. In 2024, then President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was removed from office after a failed attempt at enacting martial law in his country, pardoned him.
In a statement to Reuters, Samsung’s lawyers said that the ruling proves that Lee’s action on the merger was completely legal and that it was “sincerely grateful”. One analyst said that the ruling also cleared “a layer of legal uncertainty, which could be a long-term positive for Samsung.”
Despite the legal victory, Lee still has his work cut out for him. Samsung projects that it will experience a 56% in its second quarter operating profits, particularly due to sluggish sales of its AI chips. That projection has also raised concerns over the Korean tech giant’s ability to revive its own semiconductor business, which has been struggling for some time now.
