South Korean president's wife not indicted on stock price manipulation charges; ruling party claims Kim is victim

On the 17th, South Korean prosecutors indicted Kim Gun-Hee, wife of President Yoon Seok-yeol, on charges of conspiracy and aiding in the manipulation of stock prices at German Motors, an importer of cars.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 2 decided not to indict Kim on the same day in relation to the "suspicion of the First Lady's involvement in German Motors price manipulation."
The decision came about four and a half years after Kim was accused by the Open Democratic Party in April 2020.
The prosecution said, "The suspects conspired with the main perpetrators, or entrusted them with account management and stock trading while knowing or foreseeing their market manipulation.
"It would be difficult to find evidence that he was involved in the crime, such as placing an order, and we have concluded that we cannot prosecute him."
The company's former chairman, Kwon Oh-soo, is accused of manipulating stock prices between 2009 and 2012.
Kim was suspected of being involved in the creation of the accounts. Prosecutors found six accounts held by Kim that were suspected of having orders for market manipulation.
The second trial found that three companies (Daishin, Mirae Asset, and DS) were used in the market manipulation acts for which Kim was found guilty. However, the prosecution said, "Kim lacked knowledge, expertise, and experience related to stocks.
Considering that he had no history of market manipulation and that he continued to invest in the company's stocks with trust in former Chairman Kwon, it is believed that he did not negligently recognize or foresee the crime of market manipulation.
"It is difficult to make a profit if you buy stocks," he said. Kim, who made the initial investment, was persuaded by former chairman Kwon, who said, "You can make a big profit if you buy stocks," even though he had no expertise, and entrusted his own account to him for investment purposes.
The court found that Kim had engaged in two rounds of collusion trading in his Daishin Securities account, but the prosecution said that Kim had not been aware of the stock price manipulation.
While the investigation speculates that Kim had contacted him to sell the property, it was unable to find any evidence of any specific contact at the time of the transaction.
The Mirae Asset account and the DS account used for the block deal were also used by former Chairman Kwon and others to manipulate the market, and were unrelated to Kim, the prosecution said.
The prosecution also ruled that Choi was not guilty of any crime, as one of his accounts was used under the name of former Chairman Kwon, but that he had lent the account for investment purposes that were unrelated to market manipulation.
The ruling party criticized the prosecution for continuing the investigation despite the fact that automated recordings of calls from employees of the securities company showed that Kim was not an accomplice.
Kim claims to be the victim because a large number of investigators were mobilized to dig up the 10-year-old incident and investigate it as a separate case.
A ruling party official said, "There is no precedent for investigating a stock price manipulation case that occurred 10 years ago."
"At a time when there is a lack of time to investigate ongoing cases of stock price manipulation, the fact that a 10-year-old case has been investigated for such a long time is an abuse of investigative power and is unprecedented," he said.
He also said, "Despite the prohibition on separate investigations being a rule of investigation, they continued to investigate until they found evidence of Kim's involvement. This not only resulted in a waste of investigative manpower, but also
"The investigation was conducted while extending the statute of limitations," he said, adding, "Rather, shouldn't this be the subject of investigation? Kim is the only victim."