Lee Jae-Yong

A South Korean court acquitted Samsung Electronics chief Lee Jae-yong on Monday of a raft of crimes linked to a controversial 2015 merger, Lee's lawyers said.

The heir and de facto leader of Samsung group received a presidential pardon on Aug. 12, the latest example of South Korea's long tradition of freeing business leaders convicted of corruption on economic grounds.    

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics plans to spend $22 billion over the next three years on artificial intelligence, auto components and other future businesses as the company maps out its strategy under the restored leadership of Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong after he was freed from prison.

Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong was freed on Feb. 5 after a South Korean appeals court gave him a suspended jail sentence for corruption in connection with a scandal that topped the country’s president.

The billionaire head of South Korea's Samsung Group, Jay Y. Lee, was jailed for five years for bribery on Aug. 25 in a watershed for the country's decades-long economic order dominated by powerful, family-run conglomerates.

South Korean prosecutors will summon former president Park Geun-Hye, whose impeachment was confirmed by the country's highest court last week, for questioning as a criminal suspect, a spokesman said March 14.

Park has been named as an accomplice to the secret confidante at the heart of a corruption and influence-peddling scandal that triggered her dramatic downfall.

Prosecutors on Feb. 17 arrested the de facto head of South Korea's largest conglomerate, Samsung, on bribery and other charges related to a political corruption scandal that triggered the impeachment of President Park Geun-Hye.