Dispute Over 'Illegality' of Evidence Leading to First Trial Acquittal
At the first appellate trial of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, who was indicted on charges of unfair merger and accounting fraud, the prosecution requested a change to the indictment.
On the 30th, the Criminal Division 13 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judge Baek Gang-jin) accepted the change to the indictment at the first appellate trial regarding Lee's alleged violations of the Capital Markets Act and Financial Investment Services Act. The prosecution amended and supplemented 10 items, including ▲initiating merger transactions through formal board resolutions and breach of fiduciary duty, ▲dissemination of false information through distribution of shareholder explanatory materials and disclosures, ▲false announcement of investment risks due to new capital contributions, and ▲false announcement of plans related to Samsung Bioepis's Nasdaq listing.
Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong is heading to the courtroom on the 30th at the Seoul High Court in Seocho-gu to attend the first formal hearing of the appeal trial regarding the 'unfair merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries and the accounting fraud allegations of Samsung Biologics.' Photo by Jo Yong-jun jun21@
Lee was indicted in September 2020 on charges of deliberately lowering Samsung C&T's stock price and inflating Cheil Industries' stock price during the 2015 merger process between Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T, as well as accounting fraud amounting to 4.5436 trillion won. After 3 years and 5 months of legal battles, the first trial court acquitted Lee of all 19 charges in February of this year.
Meanwhile, the admissibility of illegally obtained evidence became a key issue in the appellate trial. Previously, the first trial court accepted Samsung's claim that the seizure of the entire server without selectively seizing only materials related to the charges was procedurally illegal. The prosecution argued, "Evidence was collected through lawful procedures," and stated, "There is a serious error in the original judgment that deemed the evidence illegally obtained." On the other hand, Lee's defense argued, "Even from the investigation report at the time, it is clear that there was no selective procedure," and insisted, "Proper procedures were not followed."
The appellate court announced that it plans to conclude the trial on November 25. The goal is to reach a conclusion before the judicial personnel reshuffle (which usually occurs at the end of January for high courts).
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