Samsung Electronics government chairman Jay Y. Lee has been declared not responsible on the cost of inventory value manipulation and accounting fraud associated to the merger of Samsung associates in 2015, a South Korean Courtroom dominated on Monday.

Within the November listening to, prosecutors had known as for Lee to be in jail for 5 years and a positive of 500 million KRW ($375,000) over prices of violating the Capital Markets Act — accounting fraud and inventory manipulation linked to an $8 billion merger of Samsung associates in 2015. The South Korean prosecutors alleged the merger helped Lee safe his management of the Korean tech big.

Lee denied his wrongdoing and claimed that the merger and accounting processes had been a part of regular administration actions for the corporate within the listening to final November. Lee additionally mentioned he had by no means had private achieve in regards to the merger and had by no means tried harming different shareholders to extend his stake in Samsung’s affiliate.

The ruling may nonetheless face appeals from prosecutors.

Merger case in 2015

There are three key takeaways the South Korean prosecutors declare. Lee, then vice-chair of Samsung Electronics in 2015, and different executives on the agency inflated the inventory value of Cheil Industries, Samsung’s textile affiliate, and depreciated its development subsidiary, Samsung C&T, in the course of the merger, which is an unlawful course of to profit Lee, giving better management of Samsung Electronics, the South Korean prosecutors claimed.

Based on the prosecutors, Samsung’s merger course of took a toll on the shareholders of Samsung C&T.

Lee can be accused of participating in a $3.9 billion accounting fraud at Samsung Biologics, Samsung’s biopharmaceutical unit, as a part of the identical case.

“The ruling confirmed that the merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil, in addition to Samsung Biologics’ accounting, was authentic,” Lee’s lawyer mentioned in a press release. “I sincerely thank the court docket for making a sagacious judgment.”

In a separate case associated to the merger, the Samsung chief was convicted of bribing former South Korean president Park Geun-hye. Lee, who went to jail for 18 months from 2017 to 2021, was paroled in 2021 and was granted a presidential pardon in 2022.