Han Moon-hyeok, a prosecutor at the Suwon High Prosecutors' Office who faced allegations of having drinks with Lee Jong-ho, the former head of Black Pearl Invest and a key suspect in the Deutsch Motors stock manipulation case, received a prosecutor general's warning.
According to legal sources on the 26th, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office notified Han of a prosecutor general's warning on the 9th after deliberation and resolution by an inspection committee that included outside members. Under the Prosecutors' Disciplinary Act, disciplinary actions are defined as five types—dismissal, removal from office, suspension, pay reduction, and reprimand—so a "warning" does not constitute a statutory disciplinary action. However, a prosecutor general's warning is categorized as the most severe warning among internal measures.
The inspection found that Han attended a drinking gathering in July 2021, about a month before taking charge as the head of the investigation team into the Deutsch Motors stock manipulation allegations at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, where Lee, the former head, was present. Afterward, in the first half of last year, when the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office began a reinvestigation into the case and Han joined the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office, it was determined that Han did not separately report this fact to a superior.
Lee, the former head, is known as the person who managed first lady Kim Keon-hee's account during the Deutsch Motors "second stock manipulation" period.
In October last year, while conducting an investigation related to the Deutsch Motors stock manipulation under a dispatch from Special Prosecutor Min Joong-ki, this fact came to light, the dispatch was canceled, and after returning to the prosecution Han underwent an inspection by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.
After the inspection process, Han was reassigned as an acting-duty prosecutor at the Suwon High Prosecutors' Office, rather than to the position of head of the Third Anti-Corruption Investigation Division at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, which had been Han's original post.