South Korean prosecutors have raided Samsung Electronics’ headquarters in a fresh legal assault on the tech giant, just months after its chairman was cleared of fraud charges following a decade of courtroom battles.

Investigators from the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office carried out a search-and-seizure operation at the chipmaker’s Suwon campus, south of Seoul, targeting alleged insider trading connected to Samsung’s acquisition of robotics firm Rainbow Robotics.

Prosecutors have referred 16 people to the prosecution, including Rainbow Robotics’ chief executive and chief financial officer, over suspected violations of the Capital Markets Act. The individuals are alleged to have pocketed around US$2.6 million in illegal profits by trading on non-public information while Samsung was building its stake in the company between 2022 and 2024.

Rainbow Robotics, now a fully integrated Samsung subsidiary, was previously raided at its Daejeon headquarters, approximately 160 kilometres south of Seoul, in March.

The fresh heat on Samsung comes despite the Seoul High Court upholding the acquittal of Chairman Lee Jae-yong in July 2025, formally closing a fraud and succession case that had dogged the company’s leadership for more than a decade. The latest probe signals that while Lee’s legal troubles may be behind him, South Korean authorities remain willing to pursue the conglomerate on other fronts.