Samsung chairman cleared of fraud by South Korea's top court

South Korea's top court has upheld an appeals court ruling to dismiss all charges in a long-running fraud case against Samsung chairman Jay Y. Lee. The accounting fraud and stock manipulation charges stemmed from a merger of two Samsung subsidiaries in 2015. Prosecutors had accused Lee of manipulating share prices to help clear the way for the merger in an attempt to consolidate his power.

In 2024, a court ruled that the prosecutors failed to prove their claims. The case has worked through the appeals process since then. In a statement to Reuters, Samsung's lawyers said the latest ruling confirmed that the merger had been completed legally and added they were "sincerely grateful" to the Supreme Court.

Back in 2017, Lee was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of bribing public officials with regards to the merger. However, the Supreme Court overturned the decision and ordered a re-trial. As a result of that, Lee was handed a 30-month prison sentence and served 18 months before being paroled. Then-South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol (who was removed from office this year and recently rearrested over a failed martial law attempt in 2024) later pardoned Lee.

While the Supreme Court's ruling had been widely expected, it clears "a layer of legal uncertainty" related to Samsung, one analyst said. It will allow Lee to focus more of his attention on Samsung, which earlier this month projected a 56 percent drop in operating profit for the April-June quarter compared with the same period in 2024. That is due, in large part, to sluggish sales of its AI chips.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/samsung-chairman-cleared-of-fraud-by-south-koreas-top-court-113043402.html?src=rss https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/samsung-chairman-cleared-of-fraud-by-south-koreas-top-court-113043402.html?src=rss
Utworzony 7d | 17 lip 2025, 12:50:21


Zaloguj się, aby dodać komentarz

Inne posty w tej grupie

Google DeepMind's Aeneas model can restore fragmented Latin text

At its best, AI is a tool, not an end result. It allows people to do their jobs better, rather than sending them or their colleagues

23 lip 2025, 21:50:16 | Engadget
FDA employees say the agency's Elsa generative AI hallucinates entire studies

Current and former members of the FDA told

23 lip 2025, 21:50:15 | Engadget
Sony is finally making it possible to pair a DualSense with more than one device

Sony is bringing a welcome quality-of-life

23 lip 2025, 21:50:14 | Engadget
Microsoft backtracks on $80 The Outer Worlds 2 pricing

There's hope that the gaming industry won't follow Nintendo's lead with $80 pricing. (Well, at least not yet.) On Wednesday, Microsoft

23 lip 2025, 19:40:05 | Engadget
T-Mobile's Starlink satellite service is now available after months of testing

T-Mobile's satellite-to-mobile service is now officially

23 lip 2025, 17:20:31 | Engadget