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Appeals court set to rule on ex-first lady's corruption charges

Published: 28 Apr. 2026, 10:30

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol, left, and his wife Kim Keon Hee ride in a vehicle during a state visit to the Netherlands on Dec. 12, 2023. [YONHAP]

An appeals court is set to rule on corruption charges against former first lady Kim Keon Hee on Tuesday, following a lower court sentence of one year and eight months in prison.

Kim, who faces charges of accepting luxury goods from the Unification Church and involvement in a stock price manipulation scheme, is set to be sentenced during a hearing at the Seoul High Court at 3 p.m. on Tuesday. The session will be broadcast live.

Special counsel Min Joong-ki's team has sought a 15-year prison term for the wife of former President Yoon Suk Yeol after indicting her on charges of violating the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act, the Political Funds Act and a law on the acceptance of bribes for mediation.

The team accuses her of manipulating the stock price of Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealer in Korea, to make 810 million won ($550,000) in illegal profits from 2010 to 2012, receiving free opinion poll results from a self-proclaimed power broker ahead of her husband's 2022 presidential election, and accepting two Chanel bags and a Graff diamond necklace from a former Unification Church official requesting favors.

The lower court found her partially guilty of accepting the luxury goods and sentenced her to a prison term while ordering the confiscation of the necklace and the forfeiture of 12.8 million won.

It acquitted her of the other two charges, however, leading the special counsel team to amend its indictment to accuse her of being an “aider and abettor” in the stock manipulation scheme in addition to being an “accomplice.”

Yonhap