A few days ago, the Seoul Central District Court in South Korea issued a first-instance verdict on the improper merger and accounting fraud case of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong on February 5, acquitting him. According to court records released on February 8, South Korean prosecutors will appeal the court decision. Previously, Lee Jae-yong was indicted by prosecutors in September 2020 for allegedly driving up the share price of Cheil Wool and lowering the share price of Samsung C&T during the merger of the group's two companies, Cheil Wool and Samsung C&T, in order to strengthen his influence within the group.
Prosecutors also indicted Lee Jae-yong and other Samsung executives on suspicion of arbitrarily changing the accounting treatment standards of Samsung Biologics in 2015 and inflating the company's market value by 4.5 trillion won. The prosecutor pointed out that taking into account Lee Jae-yong’s denial of the accusation, his role as a decision-maker, and his actual interests, etc., he requested the court to sentence him to 5 years in prison and a fine of 500 million won ($376,000).
After a South Korean court acquitted 55-year-old Lee Jae-yong and other former Samsung executives, the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office stated that the verdict was unacceptable. The prosecutor pointed out that the court of first instance completely denied the prosecutor's claim and adopted the one-sided statement of the defendant's attorney. Although the Supreme Court's (Supreme Court) judgment regarding Lee Jae-yong's inheritance of management rights has taken legal effect, the first-instance court's judgment on the factual relationship is inconsistent with this, and the prosecutors will study it carefully.