The special prosecutor's office announced on the 29th that it had filed a claim for the recovery of criminal proceeds of more than 1 billion won in the indictment against Kim Keon-hee. The recovery of criminal proceeds means freezing assets suspected of being crime proceeds until the defendant's guilt is confirmed.
On the same day in the morning, the special prosecutor's office indicted Kim Keon-hee for violations of the Capital Markets Act (Deutsch Motors stock manipulation allegations), violations of the Political Funds Act (Myung Tae-kyun's interference in nominations), and solicitation for bribes under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment for Specific Crimes (gukjilbeobsa solicitation allegations).
◇ Deutsch Motors stock manipulation allegations... special prosecutor's office says "Kim Keon-hee assessed as an accomplice, not a mere proxy"
The special prosecutor's office identified Kim Keon-hee as an accomplice in the 'Deutsch Motors stock manipulation case' in a 17-page indictment. A special prosecutor's official said, "We have secured numerous evidence showing that Kim Keon-hee conspired with Kwon Oh-soo, Lee Jong-ho, and others to manipulate the stock price of Deutsch Motors from around October 2010 to around December 2012, earning unfair profits amounting to 810 million won, which is a violation of the Capital Markets Act."
While the previous prosecutor's investigation team viewed Kim Keon-hee as a mere proxy, the special prosecutor's office made a different assessment. An official from the special prosecutor's office stated, "We have secured a significant amount of evidence indicating that Kim Keon-hee had a conspiratorial relationship with those involved in the stock price manipulation, and this evidence will be made public during the trial."
The Deutsch Motors stock manipulation case involves Kwon Oh-soo, the largest shareholder and CEO of the listed company Deutsch Motors, who conspired with 13 others, including stock manipulation players and current and former executives of securities firms, from 2009 to 2012 to illegally trade 15.99 million shares (worth 63.6 billion won) using 157 accounts. During the prosecutor's investigation and related trials, it was revealed that six securities accounts under Kim Keon-hee's name were involved in the stock manipulation. The special prosecutor's office believes Kim Keon-hee was aware of the stock manipulation in advance.
◇ Gukjilbeobsa Unification Church solicitation allegations... special prosecutor's office says "Kim Keon-hee directly received items such as necklaces"
Additionally, the special prosecutor's office stated regarding the 'Gukjilbeobsa Unification Church solicitation allegations' that "Kim Keon-hee conspired with Jeon Seong-bae from April to July 2022, receiving requests related to support from the Unification Church and accepting valuable items totaling around 80 million won, which constitutes a violation of the Special Act." in the indictment.
Kim Keon-hee is suspected of having received two 'Chanel' bags worth over 10 million won and a 'Graf' necklace worth over 60 million won through Jeon and has been accused of aiding in resolving issues related to the Unification Church.
An official from the special prosecutor's office said, "After the investigation, various pieces of evidence were collected, and we concluded that there are sufficient grounds to believe that the items (provided by the Unification Church) were delivered to Kim Keon-hee."
◇ Nomination interference allegations... special prosecutor's office "plans to investigate and indict Yoon Suk-yeol and Myung Tae-kyun"
Furthermore, regarding the 'Myung Tae-kyun nomination interference allegations', the special prosecutor's office noted in the indictment that "Kim Keon-hee colluded with former President Yoon Suk-yeol, receiving a total of 27 million won worth of opinion polls freely provided by Myung from around June 2021 to around March 2022, violating the Political Funds Act."
The special prosecutor's office suspects that Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife received free opinion polls related to the presidential election from Myung and former People Power Party lawmaker Kim Young-sun during the 2022 election process and that, in exchange, the People Power Party intervened to grant a nomination to the former lawmaker.
Meanwhile, the special prosecutor's office announced that it would continue to investigate allegations that Lee Bong-kwan, chairman of SEOHEE CONSTRUCTION, presented a necklace valued at millions of won to Kim Keon-hee for the purpose of soliciting favors. Additionally, it stated that it would further investigate and indict to prove the collusion between Kim Keon-hee, former President Yoon Suk-yeol, and Myung regarding the solicitation allegations and nomination interference allegations.