▲ Former first lady Kim Keon Hee arrives at the Seoul Central District Court in southern Seoul on Aug. 12, 2025, to attend her arrest warrant hearing. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

ex-first lady-indictment

Special counsel's indictment accuses ex-first lady of active participation in stock manipulation scheme

By Lee Haye-ah

SEOUL, Sept. 3 (Yonhap) -- Former first lady Kim Keon Hee actively participated in a stock manipulation scheme from 2009 to 2012 contrary to claims that she simply provided money, a special counsel's indictment showed Wednesday.

According to the indictment filed last Friday and seen by Yonhap News Agency, the wife of ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol was first introduced to the chief of Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealer in South Korea, in 2004, and she was aware that he was manipulating the company's stock prices with the help of Lee Jong-ho, former head of Black Pearl Invest.

Special counsel Min Joong-ki's team wrote in the indictment that Kim aided the effort by offering her own stock accounts containing 1.6 billion won (US$1.15 million) and 2 billion won each.

During the first round of stock manipulation from December 2009 until October 2010, the former first lady agreed to a deal under which she would give 30 to 40 percent of her profits to the main actor behind the scheme in the event she made a profit, and receive compensation in the event of a loss.

According to the indictment, she ultimately made a loss and received compensation of 47 million won, before taking part in the second round of stock manipulation from October 2010 until December 2012, earning 811 million won in profits.

The special counsel team indicted her only over the second round, as the statute of limitations has expired for the first round.

The indictment also detailed exchanges between Kim, the Unification Church and a shaman named Jeon Seong-bae, who are at the center of separate charges that the former first lady accepted bribes in exchange for business favors.

In April and July 2022, following Yoon's inauguration, Kim received two Chanel bags worth 8 million won and 12.7 million won from a Church official through Jeon, according to the document.

In the case of the second bag, the Church official told Jeon in June that he would like to give a gift to the then first lady, to which the shaman suggested he call back after July 1, when Yoon and his wife were scheduled to return from a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Spain.

On July 5, the Church official met Jeon at a hotel in Seoul and asked that he deliver the bag to Kim along with a request for government support for various large-scale projects pushed by the Church, including the hosting of a United Nations office in South Korea.

Kim received the bag and the request shortly afterward, and on July 15, called the Church official to thank him for the bag and to assure him of the government's efforts to help the Church, the special counsel team said.

The former first lady has been under arrest since Aug. 12.

Her indictment last week made her and her husband the first former presidential couple to stand trial under arrest simultaneously, as Yoon is also jailed and being tried on insurrection charges over his failed attempt to impose martial law in December.

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