Supreme Court Delays Kim Keon Hee Appeal Ruling Until Grand Bench Review on the 24th... Was the Outcome for Yoon and Oh Taken Into Account?

[Financial News] The Supreme Court of Korea has postponed its ruling on the appeal trial of Kim Keon Hee, who is accused of stock manipulation involving Deutsche Motors and other charges, after referring the case to the Grand Bench. Cases sent from a division to the Grand Bench are typically those in which the court cannot reach a conclusion or intends to change precedent. With former President Yoon Suk Yeol and Seoul Metropolitan City Mayor Oh Se-hoon having been found guilty on the same charges, attention is now focused on whether the Supreme Court's decision in Kim's case, which was acquitted in the first and second trials, will be reversed.
According to the legal community on the 23rd, the Second Division of the Supreme Court of Korea, presided over by Justice Park Young-jae, referred Kim's case involving violations of the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act, the political funds law, and charges of brokerage-related bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Crimes to the Grand Bench, and postponed the ruling date that had been set for the 24th. The court did not set a new date and instead left it to be designated later.
The Supreme Court did not specify why it referred the case from a division to the Grand Bench, but the move appears to reflect consideration of the outcomes in the Yoon and Oh cases. A division consists of four justices, and cases are usually sent to the Grand Bench, which includes at least two-thirds of the justices, when the division is divided and cannot reach a conclusion or when it deems a division ruling inappropriate. Although the division had set the ruling date for the 24th, the fact that the Yoon and Oh cases produced outcomes that differed from earlier judgments suggests the court chose to have the Grand Bench review the matter. A final decision must also be made by the Grand Bench when the court recognizes a need to change an existing precedent. However, that would require an existing precedent, and since Kim's case is being assessed as a first-of-its-kind precedent, that possibility appears unlikely.
Kim's appeal ruling had originally been scheduled for the 16th, but it was postponed to the 24th at the request of the Kim Keon Hee Special Prosecutor Team led by Special Counsel Min Joung-kie. At the time, the special prosecutor team submitted an opinion after analyzing the first-instance ruling in Yoon's case, in which he was convicted on the same charges, and asked that the ruling date be delayed by at least one month.
Yoon and his wife were separately indicted and tried over allegations that, from June 2021 to March 2022, they received 58 free presidential election opinion polls worth a total of 270 million won from political broker Myeong Tae-gyun. Kim was acquitted of those charges in both the first and second trials. But the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 33, presided over by Chief Judge Lee Jin-gwan, found Yoon guilty on the 13th of receiving 14 free polls, sentencing him to two years in prison and ordering the forfeiture of about 13.96 million won. The couple received opposite rulings on the same charges.
In particular, the first-instance court in Yoon's case ruled that Yoon, his wife, and Myeong had reached a 'sequential and tacit agreement of intent' regarding the free provision, and held that Kim was also liable as a co-principal. That interpretation was the opposite of the legal reasoning used in Kim's first- and second-trial acquittals, which did not regard her as a 'person engaged in political activity' under the political funds law. For that reason, the special prosecutor team submitted an opinion citing the wording of Yoon's verdict to highlight what it said were legal errors by the first- and second-trial courts and asked for a reconsideration.
Kim was found guilty in part of charges that she conspired with former Deutsche Motors Chairman Kwon Oh-soo and others to make 811.44 million won in illicit gains through stock manipulation, as well as charges that she conspired with Geomjin Beopsa (Jeon Seong-bae) to receive luxury goods worth 80 million won, including a diamond necklace and Chanel bags, from the Unification Church. She was sentenced on appeal to four years in prison and a fine of 50 million won.
[email protected] Jung Kyung-soo Choi Eun-sol Reporter