Ex-Deutsch Motors head found guilty in stock manipulation linked to first lady

The former chairperson of Deutsch Motors, Kwon Oh-soo, was handed a suspended prison sentence on Friday in the company stock manipulation case which South Korea’s main opposition party claims first lady Kim Keon Hee is implicated in.

In the first trial, Kwon was sentenced to two years in prison on three years of probation and 300 million won ($237,000) in fines for violating capital market law. In total, he was found guilty in more than 3,000 different instances of fraudulent transactions, not counting the ones for which the statute of limitations had run out.

Friday’s ruling comes more than a year since he was indicted in December 2021.

In a statement issued the same day, the opposition Democratic Party of Korea once again demanded that a special counsel be named to investigate the first lady’s alleged links to the stock trading schemes.

The party said it would consider fast-tracking a special counsel bill to investigate the first lady, who allegedly entrusted her stock accounts with one of the accused in the Deutsch Motors’ case more than 10 years ago. The court ruled this entrusted investor and one other who was accused in the trial as not guilty.

Fast-tracking a bill requires consent of at least three-fifths of the members of the National Assembly, whose majority is held by the Democratic Party.

The Democratic Party also refuted the court’s finding that the ex-Deutsch Motors head and others who assisted him “failed to achieve their goals of manipulating the market prices of stocks.”

“We are unable to agree that these constitute unsuccessful attempts to manipulate markets,” the party said in the statement.

“It is more than necessary to appoint a special counsel regarding the first lady and her stock trades. We are seeing ample evidence that she is complicit.”

The presidential office said in a statement that the court ruling “directly contradicts” the Democratic Party’s claims so far that the first lady financed the funds for the stock transactions.

“Given the court findings, the Democratic Party should refrain from making groundless claims,” the presidential office said, warning possible legal actions against “fake news surrounding the president and his family.”