SEOUL — South Korea’s top court ruled on Thursday that Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong was not guilty in a fraud case, clearing the country’s richest man of a legal risk that had hung over him for years.
The Supreme Court upheld the Seoul High Court’s acquittal of Lee in February, saying it found no mistakes in that ruling. The appeals court had dismissed prosecutors’ accusations that Lee committed stock price manipulation and accounting fraud in the merger of two Samsung affiliates in 2015 to smooth succession from his father, who was ailing at the time.
