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Supreme Court upholds convictions in Deutsch Motors stock manipulation case

Published: 03 Apr. 2025, 18:06

Supreme Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Feb. 11, 2019 [YONHAP]

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a lower court's conviction of nine people involved in the high-profile stock manipulation scheme involving first lady Kim Keon Hee.

The case centers on charges that Kwon Oh-soo, a former chairman of Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealer in Korea, manipulated the price of the firm's shares between 2009-2012 through illegal means, including sham transactions and using financial accounts under other people's names.

Former Deutsch Motors head gets suspended prison term for stock manipulation

Kim and another individual, surnamed Sohn, allegedly had their financial accounts used in the scheme, though they were not directly involved in the manipulation itself.

In September last year, the Seoul High Court sentenced Kwon to imprisonment of three years, suspended for four years, and a fine of 500 million won ($343,000), while Sohn was sentenced to six months in prison, with the sentence suspended for one year.

The Supreme Court said there was no error or misunderstanding of the legal principles in the lower court's verdict on the defendants.

The prosecution decided not to indict the first lady last October after looking into her alleged involvement in the stock manipulation scheme, concluding that she did not know her accounts were used for manipulation. Prosecutors distinguished Kim's alleged involvement from that of Sohn, who directly communicated with the traders involved in the manipulation scheme.

Yonhap