Incheon: An associate of former first lady Kim Keon Hee will be detained and taken away for questioning upon entry from Vietnam on Tuesday, investigators said. Kim Ye-seong, known as the "butler" of the former first lady's family, is scheduled to arrive at Incheon International Airport on a Vietnam Airlines flight from Ho Chi Minh City at 4:25 p.m.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Kim Ye-seong is suspected of receiving 18.4 billion won (US$13.2 million) in illegal investments from several companies, including Kakao Mobility Corp., for IMS Mobility, a company he helped establish, in 2023. Considering that IMS Mobility was effectively in a state of capital impairment at the time of the investments, the special prosecutors suspect the companies invested in IMS Mobility in consideration of its connection to Kim and the former first lady.
Kim Ye-seong left South Korea for Vietnam in April in what investigators believe was an attempt to flee following the ouster of then President Yoon Suk Yeol, Kim Keon Hee's husband. Special counsel Min Joong-ki's team stated in a notice to the press, "Once the aircraft lands, we plan to detain him on the boarding bridge and use the same gate as other passengers to bring him to the special counsel's office."