Police have decided to drop charges against first lady Kim Keon Hee over allegations of being an accomplice in her mother’s forging of financial documents used in a land purchase deal, a civic group said Thursday.
The civic group, known as the National Action for Judicial Justice, said the Yongsan Police Station in Seoul notified them of the decision not to refer the first lady to the prosecution on May 2.
The decision came after the group filed a complaint with the police last year, accusing Kim of allegedly taking part in or conspiring with her mother, Choi Eun-soon, in the forgery of her bank balance statements.
The 77-year-old mother of the first lady was released on parole earlier this week while serving a one-year sentence since an appellate court convicted her in July last year of forging financial documents used in the land purchase deal.
She was accused of forging bank balance statements on four occasions to falsely show bank deposits of 34.9 billion won (US$25.7 million) in the process of purcha
sing land in Seongnam, south of Seoul, in 2013.
The civic group filed a similar complaint against Kim in 2021, but the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency dismissed the case, citing lack of evidence.
The Yongsan Police Station dropped the case on the same grounds.
Source: Yonhap News Agency