Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong Acquitted of Stock Manipulation Charges

A South Korean court acquitted Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong who was accused of stock price manipulation and accounting fraud in relation to a contentious merger between two Samsung affiliates in 2015 that tightened his grip over South Korea’s biggest company. The ruling by the Seoul Central District Court on Monday could ease the legal troubles surrounding the Samsung heir less than two years after he was pardoned of a separate conviction of bribing a former president in a corruption scandal that toppled a previous South Korean government. The court said the prosecution failed to sufficiently prove that the merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries was unlawfully conducted with an aim to strengthen Lee’s control over Samsung Electronics. Prosecutors had sought a five-year jail term for Lee. It wasn’t immediately clear whether they would appeal.