The Seoul Central District Court on Monday acquitted Samsung Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee of stock manipulation and accounting fraud charges, according to local media outlet The Korea Herald. This eliminated the possibility of him being imprisoned.

The decision focused on Lee’s involvement in a controversial merger of Samsung affiliates C&T and Cheil Industries in 2015. The prosecution called for Lee to be sentenced to five years in prison and fined 500 million won. They suspected that Samsung engaged in unfair practices to manipulate the stock market in support of the merger and that the merger allowed Lee to strengthen his control of the Samsung conglomerate. Lee denied the charges in saying that his personal interests were not considered in the merger.

In acquitting Lee, the court said that there was insufficient evidence to convict him. The judge said there was no clear evidence suggesting that the merger was only beneficial to Lee and detrimental to minority shareholders. The judge deemed the merger to be a part of typical business operations and did not agree with the prosecution’s claim that Samsung proceeded with the merger at a time that would damage shareholders’ interests most severely. 13 other defendants, including former Samsung executives Kim Jong-jung and Choi Gee-sung, were also acquitted.

Lee received a presidential pardon in August 2022 for prior graft convictions. On February 5, 2018, a South Korean appeals court suspended his two-and-a-half-year prison sentence in rejecting most of his bribery and embezzlement charges. The Seoul High Court sentenced Lee on January 18, 2021 to two and a half years in prison over corruption and bribery charges. He previously spent one year in prison in 2017 following that conviction.