[Sniff-47] Prosecutors have not prosecuted Yoon Suk Yeol's wife, Kim Gun-hee, for her involvement in the Deutsche Motors stock price manipulation case. After four and a half years of investigation, the final non-prosecution decision was made.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office's Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 2 (Chief Prosecutor Choi Jae-hoon) held a briefing on the 17th and said it concluded Kim's alleged manipulation of Deutsche Motors' stock price as "no charges." Kim was named as the "main 錢" of the money used in the stock price manipulation crime, and the prosecution judged that it was difficult to admit Kim's involvement in the crime.
The prosecution also decided not to charge or pay other account holders, including President Yoon's mother-in-law Choi Eun-soon (Kim's mother), who is known to have been used to manipulate stock prices.
In this episode, we will continue to learn how the Deutsche Motors case unfolded following the last episode.
Friends Who Helped Escape Key Person in 'Suspected Deutsche Stock Price Manipulation' Suspended Execution of First Trial
In May 2022, acquaintances accused of helping a key figure in the case flee in connection with the Deutsche Motors stock price manipulation case were sentenced to probation in the first trial.
At that time, Senior Judge Kim Sang-il of the Seoul Central District Court sentenced three people, including A, to six months in prison and two years of probation, respectively, who were recently charged with criminal escape. Senior judge Kim also ordered them to serve 40 hours of community service each.
Mr. A and others were accused of helping Mr. Lee, who was involved in the Deutsche Motors stock price manipulation case, escape from September to October 2021. Lee fled in late September of the same year after being investigated by prosecutors since August 2021 on charges of participating in Deutsche Motors stock price manipulation (such as violating the Capital Markets Act). Lee did not appear at the suspect's interrogation scheduled for October of the same year, and an arrest warrant was issued.
Mr. A, a subordinate of the company Mr. Lee represented, was accused of providing convenience, such as driving Mr. Lee in a car to meet creditors or purchasing medicine to take while on the run. Mr. A was also accused of leaving his phone in the parking lot of Suseo Station and moving to the Daejeon area with Lee's cell phone to make it look as if Mr. Lee had moved to Daejeon by calling his wife on his phone to make it look as if Mr. Lee had moved to Daejeon.
Lee's acquaintances B and C, who were indicted together, were also accused of providing Lee with a hideout and opening a borrowed-name mobile phone to deliver it.
"Each crime of the defendants in this case has allowed the defendants to actively flee the suspect under investigation, and the nature of the crime is not good," senior judge Kim said. "This has resulted in obstructing criminal justice, and the responsibility is considerable."
However, he explained, "The defendants acknowledge their faults and reflect on their own mistakes, and they have no history of being punished for the same crime yet," adding, "The sentence is decided by taking into account various sentencing conditions such as the age, sex, and environment of the defendants."
Prosecutors investigating Yoon Suk Yeol's mother-in-law and Deutsche Motors 'resigned again'
In the meantime, prosecutors who investigated the alleged family-related case of President Yoon Suk Yeol in June 2022 expressed their resignation one after another. In the follow-up appointments of the prosecution, there were also observations that prosecutors who were concerned that if the "code personnel" trend continued, the land to stand on would be narrowed will resign one after another.
Park Soon-bae (33rd Judicial Research and Training Institute), the second deputy chief prosecutor of Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office, who investigated the case of President Yoon's mother-in-law's alleged illegal supply and demand of nursing hospitals at the time, offered his resignation to the Ministry of Justice. Chief prosecutor Park indicted President Yoon's mother-in-law, identified only by her surname Choi, without detention in November 2020 while serving as the 6th criminal director of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office. Choi was sentenced to three years in prison in the first trial for illegally setting up a medical foundation and earning 2.3 billion won in medical benefits for his involvement in the operation of nursing hospitals. However, he was acquitted on appeal.
Park Ki-tae (35th), the chief prosecutor of the Cheongju District Prosecutors' Office, who investigated the case of President Yoon's wife Kim Gun-hee's alleged manipulation of Deutsche Motors stock price and sponsorship of Covana content, also submitted his resignation. In July 2021, Park Ki-tae, a senior prosecutor, investigated allegations that Mrs. Kim was involved in the manipulation of Deutsche Motors' stock price while serving as a deputy prosecutor for the second division of the anti-corruption and violent investigation at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office. The Anti-Corruption and Strong Investigation Department 2 arrested and prosecuted Chairman Kwon Oh-soo and others of Deutsche Motors in December 2021, but did not terminate Kim.
Inside and outside the prosecution, there was a prospect that the tightrope scandal that took place after Yoon Suk Yeol took office in 2019 could be rekindled ahead of the appointment of middle-level officials. At that time, dozens of prosecutors who did not belong to the group took off their clothes as prosecutors, considered "Yoon Suk Yeol divisions" and "special lines," took over key positions.
Deutsche's stock price manipulation Kwon Oh-soo is guilty of the first trial...Charges and acquittals of some persons involved
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office submitted its final opinion to the court in December 2022, including Chairman Kwon Oh-soo, and submitted it to the court by stating in its opinion that Kim Gun-hee earned 1.39 billion won and Choi Eun-soon earned 900 million won during the entire analysis period from April 2009 to December 2011.
Former Deutsche Motors chairman Kwon Oh-soo, who was accused of manipulating Deutsche Motors shares in February 2023, was convicted in the first trial. Participants, including stock price manipulation "athletes," who were indicted on the same charges, were also convicted.
At that time, the 23rd Division of Criminal Agreement (Chief Judge Cho Byung-gu) of the Seoul Central District Court sentenced former chairman Kwon, who was accused of violating the Capital Markets Act, to two years in prison, three years of probation, and a fine of 300 million won. Five participants in the stock price manipulation who were also indicted were also sentenced to suspended prison sentences and fined.
Lee, who was identified as a "player" in the first period of Deutsche Motors stock price manipulation, was sentenced to two years in prison. In the case of Lee, he was found not guilty of manipulating Deutsche Motor's stock price, but was sentenced to two years in prison after being found guilty of manipulating the stock price of Aryon Technology, which he operated. Kim, who was a "player" in the second period of stock price manipulation, was sentenced to two years in prison, three years of probation, and a fine of 200 million won.
However, "Jeonju" Son, who was accused of paying for stock price manipulation, was acquitted because he was not found guilty.
The court said, "The defendant Kwon Oh-soo was motivated to manipulate the stock price management type due to management needs, and the rest of the defendants were motivated to pursue capital gains and acquire separate profits," adding, "However, despite the market price manipulation, the stock price continued to fall and the trading volume plummeted." "In terms of accomplices' pursuit of market profits, failed market price manipulation," he explained.
The court ruled that the statute of limitations (10 years) has expired and cannot be charged with charges in the first phase of stock price manipulation (December 23, 2009-September 20, 2010) and part of the second phase (September 24, 2010-October 20, 2010).
The prosecution argued that the three-year-long manipulation of stock prices from December 2009 should be viewed as a crime (comprehensive one crime), but the court refused to accept it. The court said, "If it is difficult to see it as a series of actions based on a single criminal intent due to different specific means of crime and different time intervals, it cannot be considered a comprehensive crime."
As a result, the court found 101 out of 130 transactions and fake transactions guilty from October 21, 2010 to December 7, 2012 (in stages 2 to 5 of stock price manipulation) and 3,083 out of 3,702 transactions of real-life transactions.
The court said that former chairman Kwon realized a profit of 89 million won through such stock price manipulation, while Lee, who served as a control tower among the six convicted accomplices, benefited more than 110 million won and Kim, an employee of a securities company, about 42 million won. On the contrary, "Jeonju" Son was found to have lost more than tens of millions of won, including 109 million won, and Lee, who mobilized company funds as a company's chief financial officer (CFO), 52 million won.
The court also found Kwon Oh-soo not guilty of raising stock prices by spreading favorable information to the market and rumors that Deutsche Motors' stock prices would rise, saying the facts have not been sufficiently proven, and that he directly bought Deutsche Motors shares or mobilized large-scale sales accounts through abnormal buying inducements. The prosecution appealed against this.
'Deutsche Motors Stock Price Manipulation' Party Is on Trial...a grand final judgment
The investigation ended in four and a half years after the prosecution dismissed Yoon Suk Yeol's wife Kim Gun-hee and Kim's mother Choi Eun-soon without charge in connection with the "Deutch Motors stock price manipulation" case, but the trial of 14 participants, including the main culprit and a helper, is underway. Kwon Oh-soo, former chairman of Deutsche Motors, and others appealed, and the case was finally decided by the Supreme Court.
According to the legal profession, there are three Deutsche Motors case trials, one for each level. Of the 14 people charged, 10 were convicted in either the first or second instance.
Nine appeals were filed with the Supreme Court on the 11th, including Kwon, the mastermind, Lee, also known as "Jupo" or players, and Kim, former CEO of Black Pearl Investment Lee Jong-ho, and Sohn, a "professional investor" who was recognized as a helper in the appeal trial. The case has not yet been distributed or the chief justice has not been decided. All of them were sentenced to suspended or imprisonment in the second trial on the 12th of last month, and appealed in unison against the ruling.
Another main culprit, Min, who was an employee of Black Pearl Investment, is being indicted and tried separately. In the first trial in October last year, Min was sentenced to one and a half years in prison, suspended for three years, and fined 150 million won. The first trial date of Min's appeal will be held on the 12th of next month at the Seoul High Court Criminal Chamber 12-1 (Judge Hong Ji-young).
In addition, four people, including Mr. Lee, are also on trial in the first trial. Of these, three professional investors like Son were put on trial as a helper, and two confessed to the crime.
Initially, five people were summarily indicted in 2021 and put on formal trial the following year, but one died suddenly last year. The cause of death is unknown.
In this case, the trial date for sentencing remains "estimated," or later designated, after the pleading was concluded in March last year. In the meantime, the prosecution submitted an application for permission to change the indictment against them to the court for the same purpose as the trial of Kwon's group in July last year. Judge Jongmin Lee of the Seoul Central District Court is in charge of the case.