Samsung boss Lee Jae-yong has been cleared of fraud charges, concluding a decade-long legal battle over his role in a 2015 merger deal.
Lee, the grandson of Samsung’s founder and the de facto head of the company since 2014, had been accused of using stock and accounting fraud to try and gain control of the firm.
In its final verdict, the South Korean Supreme Court upheld a not guilty verdict, after Lee was acquitted of all charges in two earlier trials.
The case drew widespread scrutiny of the technology giant, as the country grapples with corporate corruption scandals involving its powerful family-run conglomerates known as chaebols.