A Seoul court acquitted Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong who was accused of stock price manipulation and accounting fraud in relation to a contentious merger between two Samsung affiliates in 2015 that tightened his grip over South Korea’s biggest company. Prosecutors had sought a five-year jail term for Lee, but the court said the prosecution failed to sufficiently prove that the merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries was unlawfully conducted with an aim to strengthen Lee’s control over Samsung Electronics. The ruling could be appealed by prosecutors, but it prevents a return to jail for Lee, who was previously convicted of bribing a friend of former President Park Geun-hye. Lee was pardoned in 2022 by current South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol in moves that extended a history of leniency toward major white-collar crime in South Korea and preferential treatment for convicted tycoons.