Supreme Court refers Kim Keon Hee's three-charge appeal to full bench, postponing sentencing

The Supreme Court has referred the appeal of Kim Keon Hee — wife of former President Yoon Suk Yeol — to its full bench and postponed sentencing in a case involving charges related to Deutsch Motors share-price manipulation, the free receipt of polling services from Myung Tae-gyun, and the acceptance of gifts from the Unification Church. The court had originally scheduled sentencing for July 16, then moved it to July 24, only to push it back again. The latest delay means the date has now been deferred twice.

The full-bench referral is widely seen as reflecting the court's need to examine the charge that Kim received polling services free of charge from Myung — a count on which lower courts acquitted her. The issue gained urgency after a first-instance court recently convicted former President Yoon on the same charge under the Political Funds Act, reaching a conclusion that diverged from the lower-court rulings in Kim's case. Adding to the pressure, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, who faces a separate case tied to the same "Myung Tae-gyun polling" allegations, was found guilty Wednesday in a first-trial ruling that determined the payment of polling costs on his behalf had been established.

The Supreme Court announced Thursday afternoon that sentencing in the case — a violation of the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act and related charges against defendant Kim Keon Hee — which had been scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday, had been rescheduled to a date to be determined, pending referral to the full bench. The case, previously handled by the Supreme Court's Second Division with Justice Park Young-jae as the presiding judge, will now be deliberated by the full bench comprising all justices except the chief court administrator. The referral naturally pushed back the sentencing date.

The special prosecutor's team investigating Kim Keon Hee (led by Special Prosecutor Min Joong-ki) indicted her on charges that between October 2010 and December 2012, she conspired with former Deutsch Motors Chairman Kwon Oh-su and others to reap illicit gains of around 800 million won ($545,000) through high-price buying, fictitious orders and wash trading.

The team also charged Kim with conspiring with Jeon Sung-bae — a Buddhist monk known as Geonjin Beopsa — between April and July 2022 to accept bribes from the Unification Church, allegedly receiving gifts including a Chanel bag and a Graf diamond necklace worth a combined 80 million won. She also faces charges of receiving 270 million won worth of presidential election polling services free of charge from political broker Myung.

In the first trial, held in January, the court found Kim guilty only on part of the Unification Church gift-acceptance charge and sentenced her to one year and eight months in prison. The second trial expanded the guilty findings to cover the entire Unification Church charge and part of the Deutsch Motors share-price manipulation charge, handing down a heavier sentence of four years in prison and a fine of 50 million won. Both courts acquitted Kim on the charge of receiving Myung's polling services without payment.

The Supreme Court sentencing, originally set for July 16 and then moved to July 24, has now been delayed again. The move is seen as the court's effort to examine, through the full bench, the first-instance ruling in Yoon's case — in which the trial court convicted Yoon on the free-polling charge and identified Kim as a co-principal in the receipt of political funds.

Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Division 33, presided over by Chief Judge Lee Jin-gwan, sentenced former President Yoon to two years in prison on July 13 on charges of violating the Political Funds Act. The court found 14 of the 58 polls provided by Myung to constitute criminal conduct and identified Kim as a co-principal in the receipt of political funds.

In the separate first-trial proceedings against Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon over the same "Myung Tae-gyun polling" allegations, Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Division 22, presided over by Chief Judge Jo Hyung-woo, ruled Wednesday that the payment of polling costs on Oh's behalf had been established and sentenced him to a fine of 10 million won.