The Supreme Court of South Korea affirmed a lower court decision on Thursday that cleared Jay Y. Lee, the chairman of Samsung Electronics, of allegations of stock manipulation and accounting fraud related to a contentious 2015 merger between two Samsung affiliates.
The ruling by the top court removes a major obstacle for the de facto leader of South Korea’s largest company and puts an end to a lengthy legal battle that has lasted almost ten years. Following his father Lee Kun-hee’s crippling heart attack in 2014, the $8 billion merger, which involved Samsung C&T Corp and Cheil Industries, was generally viewed as a calculated step to strengthen Lee’s hold on the vast tech conglomerate.
The Supreme Court upheld the decisions of two subordinate courts in its decision.
