Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong was acquitted on Monday in his appeal trial over charges of stock manipulation and accounting fraud linked to the 2015 merger of two key Samsung affiliates. The Seoul High Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that found no legal wrongdoing in the merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, rejecting prosecution claims that the deal was engineered to strengthen Lee’s control over the country’s largest conglomerate. Thirteen other Samsung executives who faced related charges were also cleared.

The ruling ends years of legal scrutiny over the 2015 merger. Prosecutors had argued that Samsung intentionally