Lee Jong-ho, the former head of Black Pearl Investment, known as the account manager for Kim Keon-hee, appeared on the 5th for his pre-arrest questioning. The decision on his detention is expected to be announced as early as that evening.
The director general of the Seoul Central District Court, Nam Se-jin, is conducting the examination of Lee's arrest warrant, who is facing charges of violating the Attorneys-at-Law Act, starting at 10:30 a.m. today.
Lee, who is known to have managed Kim Keon-hee's Deutsche Motors stock account, arrived at the court around 10:05 a.m. Without answering any questions from reporters regarding whether he acknowledges the charges, whether he mentioned his acquaintance with former President Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife, whether he solicited a lighter sentence for Kim, or whether he has anything to say ahead of Kim's special prosecution summons, he entered the court.
Previously, the Kim Keon-hee special prosecution team summoned Lee for questioning three times and applied for an arrest warrant against him on the 1st for violating the Attorneys-at-Law Act.
Lee is accused of receiving about 80 million won from Lee Jeong-pil, the main perpetrator of the first stock manipulation of Deutsche Motors, 25 times between June 2022 and February 2023, in exchange for helping him get a suspended sentence instead of actual imprisonment in his criminal trial.
Meanwhile, Lee was indicted along with eight others, including Kwon Oh-soo, the former chairman of Deutsche Motors, for involvement in the stock manipulation that occurred from 2009 to 2012 and received a suspended prison sentence from the Supreme Court. In this case, Lee is reported to have led market manipulation using borrowed accounts during the second operation period classified from October 2010 to December 2012. The court found that three accounts belonging to Kim Keon-hee and one account belonging to Kim's mother, Choi Eun-soon, were used for market manipulation, identifying Lee as the individual who managed Kim's accounts.