Kim Keon Hee sentenced to one year and eight months in first trial: "Exploited her position for profit"

[The Financial News] First Lady Kim Keon Hee, who was indicted on charges including alleged stock price manipulation involving Deutsche Motors, has been sentenced at the first trial to one year and eight months in prison. As a result, former president Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife have borne the disgrace of becoming the first former presidential couple in the nation’s constitutional history to receive prison sentences.
On the 28th, Criminal Division 27 of the Seoul Central District Court, presided over by Judge Insung Woo, sentenced Kim Keon Hee, who had been indicted and detained on charges of violating the FSCMA and the Political Funds Act and of bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, to one year and eight months in prison and ordered her to forfeit 12.81 million won.
The court stated, "The president holds constitutional authority to govern state affairs, whereas the First Lady does not." It continued, "However, the First Lady can exert influence in close proximity to the president and serves as a symbolic figure representing the nation alongside the president. Accordingly, conduct befitting that role is required, along with a high standard of integrity and accountability."
The court went on to say, "The defendant misused her position as a means of pursuing profit," adding, "The defendant accepted luxury goods tied to solicitations and was preoccupied with adorning herself."
Kim Keon Hee was accused of engaging in stock price manipulation together with former Deutsche Motors chairman Kwon Oh-soo, former Black Pearl Investment CEO Jongho Lee, and others from October 2010 to December 2012, thereby obtaining unlawful gains of more than 810 million won. She also faced charges of receiving public opinion polling services worth over 270 million won free of charge from Myung Tae-kyun ahead of the 20th South Korean Presidential Election in 2022, as well as accepting valuables worth more than 80 million won, including a Chanel bag, from Geonjin Beopsa Jeon Seong-bae.
The Kim Keon Hee Special Prosecutor Team, led by Special Counsel Min Joong-ki, which brought Kim Keon Hee to trial, had requested that the court sentence her to a total of 15 years in prison, impose a fine of 2 billion won, and order forfeiture of 948.64 million won. The special prosecutor team explained its sentencing request by stating, "More than a decade after the Deutsche Motors stock price manipulation scheme, all of the co-conspirators have stood before the court, yet the defendant alone has been an exception," and added, "As the entire nation has recently been watching with a sense of deep dismay, the defendant has undermined the judicial system of the Republic of Korea."
theknight@fnnews.com Jung Kyung-soo Reporter