The first trial of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong (55), charged with…

The first trial of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong (55), charged with involvement in an unfair merger of group companies and accounting fraud aimed at obtaining management rights, will take place.

According to the legal community, on the 27th, the 13th Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court (presiding judge Baek Kang-jin, Kim Sun-hee and Lee In-soo) will begin the first trial preparation process for the case, including fraudulent transactions, market price manipulation and malpractice under President Lee’s Capital Markets Law, at 3 p.m. the same day.

Preparing for trial is a process of organizing issues and planning an investigation of evidence by confirming the position of the prosecution and the accused before a full-fledged trial. Unlike the formal trial, President Lee is not expected to appear in court as the accused is not required to attend.

Chairman Lee was indicted in September 2020 for various fraudulent transactions, market price manipulation and accounting fraud promoted by the Future Strategy Office with the aim of stably inheriting management rights and strengthening control at the lowest cost during of the merger between Cheil Industries. and Samsung C&T in 2015.

The Seoul Central District Court, which handled the first trial, acquitted President Lee of all 19 charges on February 5, three years and five months after his indictment.

The court held that the merger between the two companies could not be considered unfair as a whole, because it was not solely for the purpose of succession and strengthening the control of Chairman Lee, and there was no evidence allowing it to be admitted that it had caused harm to shareholders.

The prosecution appealed, stating: “There is a great difference of opinion from the decision of the first trial on the purpose and circumstances of the succession of control of the group through the merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries , the judgment of evidence for accounting fraud and fraudulent transactions. , the recognition of facts and the judgment of legal principles.