Former first lady jailed in South Korea bribery case

A South Korean court on Tuesday sentenced Kim Keon Hee, the wife of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, to one year and eight months in prison on charges including stock price manipulation involving Deutsch Motors and accepting a luxury Chanel handbag linked to lobbying by the Unification Church. The ruling followed an earlier sentence of five years in prison for Yoon on charges that included obstruction of arrest, marking the first time in South Korea’s constitutional history that a former presidential couple has both received prison sentences.

The Seoul Central District Court’s Criminal Division 27, chaired by Judge Woo In-sung, delivered the first-instance verdict Tuesday afternoon. The court found Kim guilty of accepting a Chanel handbag and a Graff necklace in exchange for facilitating requests from the Unification Church, a violation of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes. In its ruling, the court said Kim “failed to reject high-priced luxury items tied to improper requests and was preoccupied with adorning herself,” adding that she “misused her status as a means of pursuing personal gain.” The court ordered the confiscation of the Graff necklace, valued at about 60 million won, and imposed an additional forfeiture of 12.815 million won, reflecting the value of the Chanel handbag and concentrated ginseng products.

The sentence was lighter than the prosecution’s request of 15 years in prison and a 2 billion won fine. The court found Kim guilty only of accepting valuables from the Unification Church and acquitted her on the remaining two charges.

Regarding allegations of stock price manipulation involving Deutsch Motors, a violation of the Capital Markets Act, the court said Kim was aware of and accepted the possibility that her funds or shares could be used for price manipulation. However, it concluded there was insufficient evidence to determine that she directly committed the crime as a co-principal offender. On the charge of receiving free opinion polls from political broker Myung Tae-kyun, a violation of the Political Funds Act, the court ruled it was difficult to conclude that Kim obtained a financial benefit equivalent to the cost of the polls. The court added that while it was suspicious that former lawmaker Kim Young-sun may have received a party nomination in return for polls provided to the former presidential couple, the evidence did not meet the standard required for a criminal conviction.

Responding to the ruling, the special prosecutor said the decision was difficult to accept both legally and in terms of common sense and said an appeal would be filed.


여근호 기자 yeoroot@donga.com