Prosecution to reopen Kim Keon Hee's stock manipulation case

Kim Keon Hee (Presidential office)

The Seoul High Prosecutors' Office will reinvestigate former first lady Kim Keon Hee's involvement in a 63.6 billion won ($44.3 million) stock manipulation case, about six months after she was cleared of allegations.

In a note to reporters Friday, the prosecution said the case will be reopened in response to a complaint filed by former liberal Rep. Choe Kang-wook in November with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office.

Kim is the wife of former conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was ousted by the Constitutional Court for his botched martial law imposition in December. Yoon was also formerly the nation's top prosecutor.

The decision comes a few weeks after the Supreme Court upheld a suspended three-year jail sentence for Kwon Oh-soo, former chair of Deutsche Motors.

The top court's ruling also found his eight accomplices, including an investor who followed the instructions of Kwon, guilty of investment fraud. The investor, surnamed Sohn, was sentenced to six months in prison for abetting Kwon's crime.

In October, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office said it would not indict Kim after a 4 1/2 year probe. It cited a lack of proof that Kim had been aware of a pump-and-dump scheme when she traded listed stocks of imported car distributor Deutsche Motors in the early 2010s, although prosecutors found that Kim had phone calls with Kwon.

The Seoul High Prosecutors' Office was responsible for determining whether to reopen the case after Choe filed the complaint with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in November.

Meanwhile, the same prosecutors' office on Friday dismissed the complaint to reopen a separate case on Kim's acceptance of a luxury Dior bag caught on a spy camera. The prosecution closed the case in October.