Accomplice Lee in the Deutsch Motors stock-manipulation allegations is arrested at the Chungju Service Area on the 20th and is being escorted to the office of the Kim Keon-hee special counsel (Special Prosecutor Min Joong-ki) set up at the Gwanghwamun KT Building in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Lee, a man in his 50s, is known as the primary driver during the first phase of the stock manipulation from late 2009 to mid-2010 and is said to have handled one of Ms. Kim's accounts at a securities firm. /Courtesy of News1

On the 21st, the special counsel investigating Kim Keon-hee requested an arrest warrant for Lee, the alleged main operator behind the Deutsch Motors stock manipulation who fled during a search and seizure and was arrested after about a month. The special counsel team led by Min Joong-ki said in a press notice that it requested an arrest warrant for Lee on charges of violating the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act. A hearing to determine the validity of the warrant will be held at 3 p.m. on the 22nd at the Seoul Central District Court, with Presiding Judge So Byung-jin (duty judge) presiding over the questioning.

Lee is known as the main operator of the first phase of the Deutsch Motors stock manipulation scheme (Dec. 23, 2009–Oct. 20, 2010) and as the manager of the first lady Kim's securities firm account. The special counsel believes Lee used borrowed-name accounts and other means to artificially push up the share price and engaged in repeated trading to manipulate the market, and that Lee conspired with the first lady in the crime. The first lady has been indicted and is on trial on charges that she participated in stock manipulation from Oct. 2010 to Dec. 2012 and obtained unlawful gains of 810 million won.

Lee has also been identified as the person who introduced "Geonjin" Jeon Seong-bae to the first lady Kim. At the first lady's trial on the 7th, KakaoTalk messages the two exchanged around Oct. 2012 were disclosed, presenting a passage in which Lee, expressing discomfort about his real name being exposed, said to the effect that he would "pull out of Deutsch," and the first lady emphasized confidentiality.

Prosecutors who investigated the case before the special counsel was launched decided not to indict Lee, but the special counsel saw indications that Lee was involved in the manipulation and reopened the investigation. Lee fled from the scene of the special counsel's search and seizure on the 17th of last month and went into hiding, then was apprehended on the 20th, the 34th day, near a highway rest area in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province. Lee had been hiding in a farm shack arranged by an older brother and was reportedly arrested by an investigative team lying in wait nearby after he stopped by the rest area to buy food and drinks. The court will decide whether to issue the warrant based on the results of the hearing.

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