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Samsung chief acquitted again in second trial

Posted February. 04, 2025 08:16,   

Updated February. 04, 2025 08:16

한국어

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, who was indicted for his involvement in the unfair merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries and accounting fraud at Samsung Biologics, was acquitted on all 19 charges in the second trial, just as he was in the first trial. Following the first trial, which took 1,252 days from indictment to verdict, the second trial, lasting over a year, also resulted in acquittals for Lee and all current and former senior executives of Samsung who were indicted alongside him. Legal experts have criticized the prosecution for filing excessive charges.

"All the prosecution's reasons for appeal against the original verdict, which found all 19 charges – including violations of the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act and the Act on External Audit of Stock Companies, as well as breach of duty – to be groundless, are unacceptable. Additionally, all newly added charges presented during the second trial are also deemed groundless," the 13th Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court ruled on Monday. The court thus dismissed the prosecution's appeal, stating that neither the unfair merger charge related to Samsung Group's succession plan nor the accounting fraud allegations used to justify it could be substantiated. All 13 co-defendants, including Choi Ji-sung (former head of Samsung's Future Strategy Office), Kim Jong-jung (former head of the Strategy Team under the Future Strategy Office), and Jang Choong-ki (former deputy head of the Future Strategy Office), were also acquitted.

The court upheld the first trial's ruling that the accounting fraud and false disclosure allegations related to Samsung Biologics, which triggered the case, could not be proven. The judges specifically dismissed the prosecution's additional charge in the appeals process, which claimed that Samsung Biologics fraudulently accounted for its loss of control over Samsung Bioepis in its 2015 fiscal year without a significant change in circumstances, arguing that it cannot be conclusively determined that the accounting treatment went beyond discretion.


김자현 기자 zion37@donga.com