Top Samsung exec cleared on stock fraud charges after 8-year battle

Samsung and its latest flagship, the Galaxy S25 series, is currently under the spotlight, poised to take a spot on our list of the best Android phones money can buy. However, there’s another case coming to light now, that the brand would’ve hoped was brushed under the carpet by now. Samsung’s executive chairman Jay Y. Lee has been facing legal proceedings for nearly eight years now, and has finally been acquitted of the charges leveled against him.

Following a merger in 2015, legal proceedings in 2017 accused Lee of manipulation of stock prices, and accounting fraud in the South Korean court of law. The prosecutors alleged Lee deliberately manipulated the share prices of two Samsung subsidiaries to pave the way for the eventual merger that allowed for consolidation of power. In the same year, the top executive was sentenced to a five-year prison term after the court found him guilty of bribing an aide of the former president with horses and other payments, to help his succession. This also triggered the impeachment of South Korea’s then-President Park Geun-hye.

The Supreme Court overturned the ruling and ordered a retrial, in which Lee was sentenced to 2.5 years in 201, and paroled soon thereafter. Former President Geun-hye was also jailed. In 2022, this case was thrown out entirely when chairman Lee was pardoned by President Yoon Suk Yeol. However, Bloomberg reports the High Court has just passed the verdict on the parallel case that alleged stock-rigging, and found Lee innocent (via Engadget).

The stock fraud case can still be appealed in the Supreme Court

Lee free to focus on Samsung for now

Following the accusations in 2017, the High Court judge ruled that the prosecutors could not prove Lee led the merger, and that the merger was merely for his succession. This February 2024 ruling went against all the other rulings until this point in cases related to the merger. Now, the Seoul High Court has upheld its original decision to acquit Lee of the alleged stock fraud.

The prosecution can still appeal the verdict in the Supreme Court, but for now, Lee is free to return to his role at Samsung, and lead the company forth with his direction. When that might be reflected in the company’s actions is still up in the air, but with Project Moohan and several other exciting hardware ambitions, exciting times lie ahead.