Anchor: A Seoul court ruled that Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong is not guilty of unfair market practices in a bid to tighten his claim to the company as its heir. The court dismissed charges of market manipulation and accounting fraud to bolster his control over the group, ending a nearly four-year legal saga.
Tom McCarthy has the details.

Report: Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong has been acquitted of stock price rigging and accounting fraud connected to the controversial merger of two Samsung affiliates in 2015.

The Seoul Central District Court on Monday handed down the ruling for the conglomerate chair some three and a half years after the original indictment, deciding the merger did not appear to be carried out illegally as a means of strengthening Lee's claim to the company.

The prosecution contended that the Samsung group inflated the stock prices of Cheil Industries while driving down Samsung C&T prices through various unfair practices.

Such practices were suspected to include the dissemination of false market information, the mass purchasing of affiliates' stocks and illegal lobbying of the National Pension Service, a major shareholder of Samsung C&T, to support the merger process.

The prosecutors said that such irregularities had been pursued since 2012 in favor of the Samsung Electronics chairman, who was the biggest shareholder of Cheil at 23-point-two percent, allowing him to tighten his control of Samsung C&T.

Monday's court ruling, however, found that the merger was not conducted solely for the purpose of Lee's ascension to the top of the company or to strengthen his control, and hence cannot be considered an unfair practice.

The court added that there was no evidence to show that three-to-one offer of Samsung C&T shares to Cheil shares was unfair and harmed shareholders as it also said he was not guilty of false disclosure and accounting fraud related to Samsung BioLogics, a subsidiary of Cheil.

The ruling for Lee came with the acquittal of 13 other defendants, including former head of Samsung Group's Future Strategy Office Choi Gee-sung.
Tom McCarthy, KBS WORLD Radio News.