The executive president of Samsung, Jay Y. Lee, was encouraged to criminal charges by the second highest court in South Korea, Bloomberg reported. Earlier Monday, the High Court of Seoul confirmed a previous decision paid the LEE of manipulation of actions and accusations of accounting fraud against a merger of 2015. The decision will allow Lee to focus on mobile companies and Samsung chips, who have seen drop in profits in the past a few years. Yee has always denied having committed crimes.
The accusation can always appeal to the Supreme Court of Korea, but it is unlikely that this would succeed because no new argument could be presented, according to experts. "It was very long in the investigation and the trial of this case," said Samsung’s lawyer Kim You Jin, in a statement. "We hope that with this verdict, the defendants will now be able to focus on their work."
In 2017, the prosecutors accused Lee of manipulating the course of the action of two Samsung subsidiaries to smooth the path to a merger which allowed him to consolidate his power. At the beginning of 2024, however, the court ruled that the prosecutors did not prove it. "It is difficult to say that Lee Jae-Yong [aka Jay Y. Lee]… directed the merger, and that the merger was carried out just for the succession of Lee," A judge said in the decision.
At the time, the decision was welcomed by business groups, but everyone in the country did not accept. "The decision will release the wording of legal risks, but I am short of words in terms of economic justice in the country," Park Ju-Geun, leader of the corporate thinknank leaders, said Financial time In February 2024. "This goes completely against all previous court decisions on the merger."
Lee was initially sentenced to five years in prison in 2017 after being guilty To unite civil servants on the same merger, but the Supreme Court has canceled this decision and ordered that the case is rejected. In this new trial, Lee was sentenced to two and a half years in prison at the beginning of 2021, then released a half year later (the former president of Korea, Park Geun-Hye, also went to prison for His role in the same case.) In 2022 Lee was pardoned by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was himself recently Destured and insurrection responsible for On an attempt at martial law.
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