Prosecutors appeal Samsung's Lee Jae-yong acquittal

Prosecutors appealed a court decision clearing Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong of charges of breach of trust and accounting fraud.

Lee Jae-yong, chairman of Samsung Electronics, walks out of the Seoul Central District Court upon the verdict pronouncing him innocent of the charges of breach of trust and accounting fraud on Monday. [YONHAP]

Prosecution appealed on Thursday the court decision acquitting Lee Jae-yong, chairman of Samsung Electronics, from charges of breach of trust and accounting fraud.

The Seoul Central District Court had ruled Lee innocent of the charges on Monday.

The ruling came nine years after the 2015 merger of Cheil Industries Inc. and Samsung C&T Corp. and three years and five months after the Samsung chief was first indicted.

Prosecutors alleged that Lee had committed breach of trust, stock price rigging and accounting fraud ahead of the 2015 merger, when three Samsung C&T shares were offered for one Cheil share.

They argued that Samsung Group had engaged in stock market manipulation by inflating Cheil stock prices and also lowering Samsung C&T prices via various illegal means, including spreading false market information and mass purchasing stocks of Samsung affiliates, to help Lee consolidate control over his family’s business empire at a lower cost.

However, the Seoul Central District Court ruled that prosecutors had failed to provide sufficient evidence for the charges against Lee.

The court had also dismissed prosecutors’ claims that Lee was involved in accounting fraud at Samsung Biologics, a Cheil subsidiary.

Lee is traveling abroad this week in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]