Special counsel appeals ruling on ex-first lady Kim Keon Hee in corruption case
Published: 30 Jan. 2026, 20:32
![Former first lady Kim Keon Hee, center, is seen during the final hearing on charges of violating the Capital Market Act held at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul on Dec. 3, 2025. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/01/30/35e55ef1-ee0c-4b2b-839b-9b76551a49c9.jpg)
Former first lady Kim Keon Hee, center, is seen during the final hearing on charges of violating the Capital Market Act held at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul on Dec. 3, 2025. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]
A special counsel on Friday appealed a court ruling in the corruption case of former first lady Kim Keon Hee that handed down a prison term but found her not guilty on most charges, saying the court misapprehended the facts and that the sentence was too lenient.
The appeal comes two days after Kim, the wife of ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol, was sentenced to 20 months in prison for accepting luxury gifts from the Unification Church in return for business favors.
But the Seoul Central District Court acquitted her of charges of involvement in a stock price manipulation scheme and violating the Political Funds Act. The court ordered Kim to forfeit 12.8 million won ($9,000).
Special counsel Min Joong-ki's team in charge of the case had requested a 15-year prison term for Kim. It also sought a fine of 2 billion won and a forfeiture of 948 million won.
"There were serious misapprehensions of the facts and an illegality in the misinterpretations of the law in the court's not-guilty rulings. The sentence on the guilty counts is also unduly lenient," the special counsel team said in a statement.
The court found Kim guilty of receiving a Chanel bag and a high-end Graff necklace from a Unification Church official who had sought business favors in July 2022.
On the charge of conspiring with a former head of Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealer in Korea, to manipulate the company's stock price and pocket illegal profits, the court ruled that she may have been aware of the scheme, but could not determine that she took part in it as an accomplice.
The court acknowledged that Kim and her husband received free opinion polls from a self-proclaimed power broker, but did not find that they benefited the couple economically, as they were not given exclusively to the couple.
Yonhap
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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