Former first lady Kim Keon Hee was sentenced to 20 months in prison Wednesday on corruption charges. In this photo, people watch news of the verdict on a screen at Seoul Station. Photo by Yonhap
A court sentenced former first lady Kim Keon Hee to one year and eight months in prison Wednesday after finding her guilty of accepting luxury bribes from the Unification Church that had sought business favors.
Special counsel Min Joong-ki’s team had sought a 15-year prison term for Kim, the wife of ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who stands trial on an insurrection charge related to his martial law bid in 2024.
But the Seoul Central District Court handed down the far shorter prison term for Kim, acquitting her of charges of involvement in a stock manipulation scheme and violating the Political Funds Act.
The court also ordered Kim to forfeit 12.8 million won (US$8,988). With Wednesday’s ruling, Kim and her husband have become the country’s first presidential couple to be imprisoned with criminal convictions.
The court said it found Kim guilty of receiving luxury goods, such as a Chanel bag and a high-end Graff necklace, from the Unification Church, which had sought business favors from her.
“The defendant misused her position as a means to seek profit,” the court said. “(She) failed to reject high-end luxury goods shared in connection with the Unification Church’s requests and focused on her own adornment.”
Kim had been charged with conspiring with a former head of Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealer in South Korea, as well as a close associate, to manipulate the company’s stock price and make 810 million won in illegal profits between 2010 and 2012.
She was also indicted for violating the Political Funds Act for allegedly receiving free opinion polls worth 270 million won, together with her husband, from a self-proclaimed power broker ahead of the 2022 presidential election.
The former first lady was additionally charged with conspiring with a shaman to receive luxury gifts worth 80 million won from a Unification Church official in 2022, along with requests for business favors.
Kim, who has been held in custody since August, had denied all of the charges.
Yoon has been sentenced to five years in prison on charges stemming from his martial law bid in 2024. He is also standing trial on more charges, including leading an insurrection through his martial law decree.
Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.