hankyoreh

Kim Keon-hee, the wife of President Yoon Suk-yeol, waves to someone while heading into the inauguration ceremony on May 10, 2022, on the National Assembly lawn. (National Assembly pool photo)

It’s been nine months and prosecutors have yet to reach a conclusion on the stock price manipulation allegations against Korea’s first lady, Kim Keon-hee — the “last suspect” in the Deutsch Motors case. Why is this the case?

Prosecution service insiders offered differing opinions, with some suggesting that the prosecutors have missed their chance to decide not to press charges or that there may be something that can’t be papered over.

The matter is currently being investigated by the second anti-corruption investigation division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, overseen by Kim Yeong-cheol.

Prosecutors brought all of the major parties in the stock price manipulation allegations to trial between November and early December of last year, including former Deutsch Motors Chairperson Kwon Oh-soo. Also arrested and indicted was a stock price manipulation expert surnamed Lee, who reportedly managed an account with 1 billion won in it that they received from Kim.

At the same time, the investigation team said it planned to continue investigating Kim — but no progress has been made since then.

Some observers suggested the prosecutors have already reached the decision not to press charges and are just weighing the timing of their announcement. While Kim’s account may have been used for the manipulation activities, these observers said, there appears to be no clear evidence that she was directly involved.

Indeed, prosecutors often decide to drop charges against the people whose seed money is used for stock price manipulations. According to this view, they may have missed their window for doing so in Kim’s case.

“If they were going to drop the charges, they should have done it before [Yoon Suk-yeol] was inaugurated,” an attorney and former chief prosecutor told the Hankyoreh on Monday.

“It looks like they missed their moment and were left holding the case, so that now they’re looking for signals from the administration,” the attorney suggested.

Analysts also said prosecutors may be making the political decision to delay the announcement that they are dropping the charges for fear of a backlash at a time when the frequent issues surrounding Kim have been a factor dragging down her husband’s approval ratings.

Other observers suggested there may be differences of opinion among the investigators on whether to press charges based on the facts and circumstantial evidence that have emerged to date.

According to their indictments, Kim’s transactions amounted to 9.1% in terms of share numbers (7.7% of the purchase value) during the period when Kwon and the others were involved in stock price manipulations, including wash sales, matched orders, bidding up and spoofing. A total of 284 price manipulations were found in five accounts in Kim’s name, and circumstantial evidence also shows that a securities account belonging to her mother, surnamed Choi, was also used in stock price manipulations.

At the same time, it has also emerged that the son of Kwon — one of the central figures in the stock price manipulation activities — was invited to attend Yoon’s presidential inauguration and given a seat in the VIP section.

“If this were merely about Kim being the ‘owner of the money,’ this matter should have been resolved with a decision not to press charges,” said an attorney and former prosecutor with extensive experience in special investigations.

“I get the sense the prosecutors may be holding on to the case because something came up that they can’t just paper over,” the attorney suggested.

By Jeon Gwang-joon, staff reporter

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