DEUTSCH MOTORS INC.(067990) The ruling on the appeal by First Lady Kim Kun-hee—who was sentenced to four years in prison on appeal for stock price manipulation, accepting bribes from the Unification Church, and receiving free opinion polls from Myung Tae-kyun—is also scheduled to be handed down.
According to legal circles on the 12th, Criminal Division 33 of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Lee Jin-gwan) will hold a sentencing hearing on the 13th for former President Yoon’s case involving violations of the Political Funds Act.
Former President Yoon was indicted by the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Kim Keon-hee (Special Prosecutor Min Joong-ki) on charges of conspiring with Mrs. Kim Keon-hee to receive a total of 58 opinion polls worth 270 million won from Mr. Myung free of charge between June 2021 and March of the following year.
Mr. Myung was charged with donating the opinion polls to former President Yoon and Mrs. Kim free of charge during the same period.
The special prosecution team estimates that former President Yoon obtained approximately 137.2 million won in criminal proceeds through violations of the Political Funds Act. It also determined that, in exchange for receiving the free opinion polls, he exerted influence to ensure that former People Power Party lawmaker Kim Young-sun—who is acquainted with Mr. Myung—received the party’s nomination in the 2022 National Assembly by-election.
Previously, at the sentencing hearing, the special prosecution team sought a four-year prison term and a forfeiture of 137.2 million won for former President Yoon. For Mr. Myung, who was tried alongside him, the team sought a three-year prison term.
Former President Yoon’s defense team requested an acquittal, arguing that there is no evidence he commissioned Mr. Myung to conduct the opinion polls or promised him any compensation.
‘Stock Price Manipulation’: Kim Keon-hee’s Sentence Increased from 1 Year and 8 Months in First Instance to 4 Years in Second InstanceThe Second Division of the Supreme Court (Presiding Justice Park Young-jae) will deliver its verdict on the morning of the 16th at 10:15 a.m. in the case involving Mrs. Kim’s violations of the Capital Markets Act, the Political Funds Act, and charges of brokerage bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes.
Mrs. Kim is accused of receiving a request for support for the Unification Church from former Unification Church World Headquarters Director Yoon Young-ho through Buddhist monk Jeon Seong-bae between April and July 2022, and in return accepting a Graff diamond necklace worth 62 million won and two Chanel handbags worth a total of 20 million won (brokerage bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes).
She is also charged with participating in stock price manipulation involving DEUTSCH MOTORS INC. from October 2010 to December 2012 and reaping 810 million won in illicit gains (violation of the Capital Markets Act), and of conspiring with former President Yoon from June 2021 to March 2022 to receive public opinion poll results worth 270 million won from Mr. Myung (violation of the Political Funds Act).
The first-instance court found her partially guilty only on the charges of accepting money and gifts from the Unification Church and sentenced her to one year and eight months in prison. However, the appellate court overturned the first-instance ruling last April, finding her guilty on all counts, and further found her partially guilty of participating in the DEUTSCH MOTORS INC. stock price manipulation, sentencing her to four years in prison and a fine of 50 million won. However, as in the first-instance trial, the court found her not guilty of the charges related to receiving illegal opinion polls.
The special prosecution team sought a 15-year prison sentence for Mrs. Kim in both the first and second trials.
Charges of embezzlement and abuse of authority… Yoon found guilty of 30 years in prison in first trial
The appeal trial for former President Yoon, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison in the first trial on charges of ordering the “Pyongyang drone operation” to create a pretext for declaring a state of emergency on December 3, will also begin on the 15th.
The 1st Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judge Yoon Seong-sik) will hold the first pretrial hearing for the appeal of former President Yoon—who faces charges of general treason, abuse of authority, and obstruction of the exercise of rights—at 2:00 p.m. on the 15th.
Former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and former Commander of the Armed Forces Counterintelligence Command Yeo In-hyung, who were indicted on the same charges, as well as former Drone Operations Commander Kim Yong-dae, who faces charges of obstructing official duties through fraud, will also stand trial together.
Former President Yoon and others were indicted on charges of inducing a “North Korean threat” by deploying drones into Pyongyang, North Korea, on multiple occasions beginning in October 2024, with the aim of creating a pretext for declaring a state of emergency.
The first-instance court ruled that the drone infiltration operations infringed upon the Republic of Korea’s military interests and that former President Yoon had planned the operations from the outset with former Minister Kim and others, thereby recognizing them as joint principal offenders in a general act of treason.
Accordingly, the court sentenced former President Yoon and former Minister Kim to 30 years in prison each. Former Commander Yeo was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and former Commander Kim was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for five years.
The appeal trial for former Minister Kim, who was sentenced to three years in prison at the first-instance trial on charges of passing on a secure phone—obtained by deceiving the Presidential Security Service—to former Army Intelligence Command Commander Noh Sang-won, will also begin this week.
Kim Charged with Obstruction of Official Duties and Incitementto Destroy
Evidence… Three-Year Prison Sentence in First InstanceThe 12-2 Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court (High Court Judges Jo Jin-gu, Kim Min-ah, and Lee Seung-cheol) will hold the first pretrial hearing on the 14th for former Minister Kim’s appeal on charges of obstruction of official duties by fraud and incitement to destroy evidence.
Former Minister Kim is accused of deceiving the Presidential Security Service into providing him with a secure phone on December 2, 2024—one day before martial law was declared—by claiming he would use it himself, and then passing it on to former Commander Noh.
Investigations revealed that former Commander Noh used the secure phone while attempting to arrest employees of the National Election Commission (NEC) as part of his efforts to form a second investigative unit to probe allegations of election fraud.
Previously, the trial court sentenced former Minister Kim to three years in prison. Both the special prosecution team and former Minister Kim appealed the first-instance ruling.
