Court acquits ex-Black Pearl Investment head in evidence-destruction case tied to Marine lobbying allegations

The Supreme Court has finalized an acquittal for Lee Jong-ho, former head of Black Pearl Investment, who was charged with ordering an acquaintance to destroy his mobile phone ahead of a special prosecutor's investigation into the so-called "Im Seong-geun lobbying" allegations. The court upheld the lower court's finding that Lee could not be classified as an instigator of evidence destruction because he had participated directly in smashing the phone alongside the acquaintance — making him a co-perpetrator rather than an instigator. Under criminal law, a person who destroys evidence in their own criminal case cannot be punished.

The Supreme Court's Second Division, presided over by Justice Kwon Young-jun, confirmed Thursday the lower court's not-guilty verdict in Lee's final appeal. A separate acquaintance, identified only by the surname Cha, who was charged with evidence destruction, received a final fine of 3 million won ($2,240), matching the lower court's ruling.

The court said there were no errors in the lower court's judgment — no violations of logic or rules of experience, no departure from the bounds of free evaluation of evidence, and no legal misinterpretation regarding the need to amend the indictment, the principle of non ultra petita, the elements of incitement to evidence destruction, or the distinction between co-perpetrators and instigators.

Lee is widely identified as the account manager for first lady Kim Keon Hee in connection with the Deutsch Motors share price manipulation case. He is also a central figure in the "Im Seong-geun lobbying" allegations — claims that he approached Kim to help secure the release of former Marine division commander Im Seong-geun, who had been named a suspect in the death of a Marine Corps soldier.

Lee was indicted on charges of instructing Cha, at a parking lot at Jamwon Han River Park in Seoul in July last year, to destroy his mobile phone. Cha was accused of stomping on the phone multiple times and discarding it in a trash bin, knowing it could serve as evidence in the special prosecutor's investigation.

At the time, Lee was under scrutiny by the special prosecutor over the lobbying allegations related to former Marine 1st Division Commander Im Seong-geun. The special prosecutor had already seized a phone Lee had been using. Investigators later found that Lee had transferred data from an older phone to a new one before having that older device destroyed.

The first-instance court acquitted Lee and fined Cha 3 million won. The court determined that Lee was not an instigator who directed Cha to destroy evidence, but rather a co-perpetrator who took part in the act alongside Cha.

Under the criminal code, evidence destruction applies to the destruction of evidence in another person's criminal case. The court held that Lee could not be punished under the so-called "self-protection doctrine," which generally exempts a person from liability for directly destroying evidence in their own criminal case.

The first-instance court cited Lee's direct involvement — throwing the phone to the ground and taking turns stomping on it with Cha — as the basis for classifying him as a co-perpetrator. The court also found it difficult to conclude that the destruction had caused serious harm to the investigation, given that the contacts and messages stored on the phone had already been copied to a new device and that new device had also been seized by investigators.

The appellate court upheld that reasoning. It further found that Lee's act of seeking another person's help to destroy evidence in his own criminal case was also generally not subject to punishment, and that it could not be readily classified as an "abuse of the right to defense" — the narrow exception under which such conduct could be penalized.

The special prosecutor appealed, arguing that Lee should be treated as an instigator rather than a co-perpetrator. The prosecution also contended that finding Lee guilty as a co-perpetrator without amending the indictment — which had charged him as an instigator — violated the principle of non ultra petita.

The Supreme Court rejected both arguments Thursday, making Lee's acquittal final.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court confirmed in July a sentence of one year and two months in prison for Lee on separate charges, including receiving 80 million won across 25 payments from Lee Jeong-pil — known as the primary operator in the Deutsch Motors share price manipulation case — in exchange for promises to suppress the investigation against him.