After decade in court, Samsung, South Korea face new test
SEOUL, July 30 (UPI) -- When South Korea's Supreme Court acquitted Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee on July 17, it closed a legal saga nearly a decade in the making.
But the decision may mark more than the end of a courtroom drama. It could signal a shift in how the country reconciles its democratic institutions with its corporate giants.
The case's origins trace back to late 2016, when a sprawling, influence-peddling scandal involving then-President Park Geun-hye and her confidante, Choi Soon-sil, led to mass protests and ultimately impeachment.
Lee was accused of offering bribes to the Park administration in exchange for government support for a merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries -- a deal allegedly designed to consolidate Lee's control of the Samsung empire.
Those charges led to his arrest in 2017, a conviction and a partial prison sentence -- later overturned and retried multiple times. But the legal fight didn't end there.
In 2018, the influential civic group People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, or PSPD -- known in Korean as "Cham-yeo Yeon-dae" -- filed a complaint that sparked a second wave of prosecutorial action.
This time, the target was Samsung Biologics, a Cheil Industries subsidiary that was accused of inflating its value by approximately 4.5 trillion won (roughly $3.1 billion) to facilitate the earlier merger.
That complaint triggered years of sweeping investigations, raids and indictments, culminating in more than 100 court appearances by Lee. In September 2023, prosecutors formally charged him and 10 other Samsung executives with 23 counts, including accounting fraud, capital markets violations and breach of trust.
Lower courts in 2024 and 2025 found all defendants not guilty. The Supreme Court reviewed 229 pieces of evidence before unanimously affirming the acquittal.
In most advanced democracies, such as the United States or France, double jeopardy rules would have barred further appeals after the first acquittal. In South Korea, no such rule exists, and this prolonged judicial exposure has raised profound questions about prosecutorial discretion and democratic balance.
A corporate giant stalled by legal paralysis
While Samsung's leadership was tied up in litigation, its competitors surged ahead. Since its $8 billion acquisition of Harman in 2017, the company had been unable to pursue any major deals -- until May, when it acquired German data-center cooling firm Flect for $1.45 billion.
Inside Samsung, a new term emerged: sammuwon -- a blend of "Samsung" and gongmuwon (civil servant) -- used to describe an increasingly bureaucratic, risk-averse corporate culture. The absence of top-level decision-making stifled innovation at a time when the global tech race accelerated.
The results were severe. In 2023, Intel surpassed Samsung as the world's leading chipmaker. Samsung's share in high-bandwidth memory -- a core technology for artificial intelligence -- slipped significantly. As of early 2025, Taiwan's TSMC dominated with 67.6% market share, while Samsung fell to 7.7%. Even China's SMIC narrowed the gap, trailing Samsung by just 1.7 percentage points.
In smartphones, Apple dethroned Samsung after 13 years at the top. The company's market capitalization declined to 394 won in mid-2025 from 513 trillion won in April 2021.
This wasn't simply a matter of poor timing. The leadership vacuum created by Lee's long legal battle contributed directly to strategic paralysis -- and to South Korea's weakened global tech positioning.
Prosecutorial overreach or due process?
Critics argue that prosecutors went too far. After the 2018 complaint by PSPD, investigators conducted raids across Samsung's network -- from its headquarters and biotech subsidiaries to even its data centers and U.S. investment partners like Goldman Sachs.
Multiple requests for Lee's arrest were denied due to insufficient grounds, yet prosecutors pressed ahead, replacing investigative teams and broadening the scope of their case.
In June 2023, a civilian-led investigative review panel recommended halting the probe. Prosecutors disregarded the advice. They proceeded with indictments in September 2023. That defiance of civilian oversight and judicial caution stirred debate not only about Samsung, but also about Korea's broader rule-of-law culture.
The consistent acquittals at every level -- district, high court and finally the Supreme Court -- suggest that this wasn't merely a complex financial case. It was a political flashpoint in which Samsung served as both symbol and target.
A strategic pivot from the Blue House
The political backdrop to the final ruling is equally instructive. President Lee Jae-myung, a progressive long known for his populist critiques of the chaebol, had initially distanced himself from Korea's corporate elite.
But recent months tell a different story. Amid rising economic headwinds -- including potential 25% U.S. reciprocal tariffs and rapid shifts in global supply chains -- Lee has made quiet overtures to the same conglomerates he once criticized.
He has held private meetings with Jay Y. Lee, SK's Chey Tae-won and Hanwha's Kim Dong-kwan, and surprised many by appointing Park Yong-maan, former chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as South Korea's lead envoy for critical trade talks with Washington.
This pivot suggests that the administration now recognizes what it once resisted: In times of geopolitical and economic upheaval, Korea's future depends on more than the public sector. It needs a competitive and globally integrated private sector.
Beyond acquittal: toward a new compact
For Jay Y. Lee, the acquittal brings not just personal vindication but a renewed mandate. His post-verdict statement -- "Samsung faces an existential crisis" -- rings with urgency. It reflects the mounting pressure to restore Korea's standing in AI, chips and advanced manufacturing.
But this is not just Lee's test. It is also President Lee's.
Can the government and business community now forge a more balanced social compact -- one that safeguards democratic accountability without strangling innovation? Can prosecutors focus on corruption, not corporate strategy? Can Korean capitalism mature beyond a binary of idolization and demonization?
The Supreme Court's ruling may have closed the book on a decade of legal warfare. But it also opened the door to something far more consequential: a national conversation about how power -- public and private -- should be wielded in a modern democracy.
The question now is whether Korea has the will -- and wisdom -- to seize the opportunity.
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