Lee Jae-yong excluded from Samsung Electronics board nominees

Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong [YONHAP]

Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong was excluded from a list of board of director nominees as he still faces legal trouble, including the prosecution's appeal against his recent court acquittal.

The tech giant filed the agenda for its shareholder meeting set for March 20 via electronic disclosure Tuesday.

However, Lee's name does not appear among the nominees shareholders will vote on.

Lee was appointed executive chairman by the company's board in 2022 but has not been a director himself since 2019 due to the ongoing legal case against him — a rare case of a member of the founding family not belonging to the board.

He had been on the board since October 2016.

He departed from the board after becoming embroiled in a bribery scandal related to former President Park Geun-hye. The title of executive chairman was granted after he received a presidential pardon in 2022.

With the prosecutors’ appeal earlier this month, Lee faces charges related to the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act due to alleged involvement in accounting fraud and engineering an unfair merger between Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T to strengthen his influence over Samsung Electronics and related companies.

Agenda items for the meeting include the appointment of Shin Je-yoon, a former Financial Services Chairman, and Cho Hye-kyung, an AI application department professor at Hansung University, as new board members and confirmation of financial results.

The heads of Korea’s other conglomerates, including Hyundai Motor, LG and SK, are taking board seats in their respective groups, a governance structure that critics believe harms the board's independence.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]