Lee Jae-yong, Panel Trial... Court Decides on Financial Settlement

Lee Jae-yong, Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics, who is under prosecution investigation for allegations of unfair succession of management rights related to the merger of the former Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, as well as accounting fraud allegations involving Samsung Biologics, is entering the courtroom to attend the warrant hearing held at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the 8th. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Dongwoo Lee] Lee Jae-yong (52), Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics, who was indicted on suspicion of illegal succession of Samsung's management rights, will face a collegiate panel trial.

The Seoul Central District Court announced on the 2nd that the case against Vice Chairman Lee, which was indicted the previous day, will be assigned to a collegiate panel after going through the reallocation agreement procedure. The reallocation agreement is a process of reassigning a case from a single-judge panel to a three-judge collegiate panel after examining the nature of the case.

The charges applied to Vice Chairman Lee fall under the jurisdiction of a single-judge panel based on the upper limit of the statutory penalty. However, the Supreme Court regulations on office division and case allocation stipulate that cases without precedent or with conflicting precedents, cases with complex facts or issues, or cases with significant social impact may be assigned to a collegiate panel through a reallocation agreement.

The Seoul Central District Court stated, "Although Vice Chairman Lee's case falls under the jurisdiction of a single judge, considering the complexity of the facts and issues, a reallocation agreement decision was made." The panel to handle the trial is expected to be assigned by the 3rd.

Earlier, the Economic Crime Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Bok-hyun) indicted Vice Chairman Lee and 11 Samsung affiliates without detention on charges including unfair trading and market manipulation under the Capital Markets Act, and breach of duty.

The prosecution initially judged that the 2015 merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries was meticulously planned under the leadership of Samsung Group's Future Strategy Office to ensure a stable succession of management rights for Vice Chairman Lee.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.