South Korea’s former first lady Kim Keon Hee, the wife of the impeached former president Yoon Suk Yeol, has been arrested on corruption charges, a special prosecutor leading a wide-reaching probe said.
The charges against Kim who joins her husband in custody, include violations of capital market and financial investment laws, as well as political funds laws. She denies the charges.
Charges Against Former First Lady
Prosecutors allege the former first lady made over 800 million won (£428,000) through manipulating the stock prices of Deutsch Motors, a local BMW dealership, between 2009 and 2012, by conspiring to artificially inflate shares.
She is also accused of receiving over 270 million won worth of illegal political funding through free opinion polling services, to influence candidate selections for the conservative People Power party in the country’s 2022 byelections.
The third charge involves accepting luxury gifts including Chanel handbags and expensive jewellery from the Unification Church through a shaman intermediary, in exchange for favourable treatment of development projects in Cambodia.
During the hearing, Kim reportedly expressed frustration about her personal affairs being scrutinised, telling the judge she was “upset that even issues from before my marriage keep being brought up”.
She will be held at Nambu detention centre in south-western Seoul, separate from her husband, who has been in custody at Seoul detention centre since July. In recent weeks, her master’s and doctoral degrees were both revoked over thesis plagiarism.
