The Seoul Central District Court acquitted Samsung Group executive chairman and company heir Lee Jae-yong of charges of stock price manipulation and accounting fraud. The ruling could ease the legal troubles facing the Samsung heir, who was pardoned for a separate conviction of bribery in a corruption scandal. Prosecutors had sought a five-year prison sentence and a $376,000 fine for Lee, but the judge concluded that the prosecution did not present sufficient evidence to prove the merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries was unlawfully conducted with an aim to strengthen Lee's control over Samsung Electronics. Lee was sentenced for offering 8.6 billion won ($6.4 million) worth of bribes to then-president Park Geun-hye and her close confidante to win government support for the 2015 merger, key to strengthening his control over the Samsung business empire and solidifying the father-to-son leadership succession. The businessman was already sentenced to five years in prison in September 2017, but a year later the sentence was reduced to probation, and then the trial started again, with Lee ultimately being released on parole in 2021 and pardoned by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in 2022.