Samsung’s Lee Jae-yong acquitted of stock manipulation, fraud charges, FT says

Samsung chair Lee Jae-yong was acquitted of stock manipulation and accounting fraud charges related to a controversial merger that occurred almost a decade ago, Christian Davies and Song Jung-a of The Financial Times reports. Jae-yong had been accused by prosecutors of manipulating the share price of Samsung subsidiaries Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries in order to facilitate a merger. The Samsung chair was also accused of orchestrating a $3.9B accounting fraud at the group’s biopharmaceutical group in 2015. While Jae-yong previously served a prison sentence on bribery charges related to the same merger, the Seoul Central District Court ruled prosecutors failed to prove the merger was conducted to secure Lee’s control of the conglomerate.