Request for Review by Seoul High Prosecutors' Office Criminal Appeal Review Committee
Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, who is on trial for unfair merger and accounting fraud charges related to management succession, is attending the appellate court sentencing hearing held at the Seoul High Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the 3rd. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung
The prosecution has decided to seek opinions from external experts to determine whether to appeal the case involving Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong's alleged unfair merger and accounting fraud.
According to the legal community on the 6th, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office investigation team requested a review from the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office Criminal Appeal Review Committee to appeal Chairman Lee. All 13 other defendants (including corporations) indicted alongside Chairman Lee, including former Samsung Group Future Strategy Office (FSO) head Choi Ji-sung, are subject to the review.
After analyzing the appellate court's verdict on the 3rd, the investigation team concluded that it would be better to receive a ruling from the Supreme Court again, and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office is also said to have accepted this. The prosecution will make the final decision on whether to appeal by respecting the opinion of the Criminal Appeal Review Committee.
The committee's review will be held privately on the morning of the 7th at the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office. According to the operational guidelines of the Criminal Appeal Review Committee, a regulation of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, prosecutors must request a review from the committee if they intend to appeal after a complete acquittal of all charges in the first and second trials. The committee is composed of lawyers, professors, legal scholars, and related experts, and reviews cases with the attendance of at least five members.
The prosecution plans to decide whether to appeal within the appeal period ending on the 10th, based on the committee's opinion, which is decided by a majority of attending members. However, prosecutors are not obligated to follow the committee's opinion.
Meanwhile, Chairman Lee was indicted in September 2020 on charges of involvement in unfair transactions, market manipulation, and accounting fraud orchestrated by the in-house Future Strategy Office during the 2015 merger of Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T, aimed at securing stable management succession at minimal cost and strengthening control.
Following a complete acquittal on all 19 charges in the first trial in February last year, the Seoul High Court Criminal Division 13 (Presiding Judges Baek Gang-jin, Kim Seon-hee, and Lee In-su), which handled the appeal trial, also acquitted Chairman Lee of all charges on the 3rd.
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