Seoul: A special counsel team was attempting to search the home of former first lady Kim Keon Hee on Friday as part of their investigation into corruption allegations surrounding her. Special counsel Min Joong-ki's team was negotiating details of the raid with Presidential Security Service officials after arriving at Kim's residence in southern Seoul with a search-and-seizure warrant.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the special counsel team has been looking into Kim's alleged acceptance of luxury goods from a shaman and her alleged meddling in election nominations, among other allegations. The team also separately raided Rep. Kim Sun-gyo's office at the National Assembly to search for evidence over allegations that the People Power Party lawmaker intervened in an expressway project that stirred controversy in 2023.
The then administration of President Yoon Suk Yeol, Kim's husband, allegedly changed the endpoint of the Seoul-Yangpyeong expressway project to where Kim's family owns land in Yangpyeong, east of Seoul, raising accusations of preferential treatment. The lawmaker, who previously served as the county's governor, is suspected of making the request for the change. After the scandal broke out, the government announced it would scrap the project.
The lawmaker was also targeted in a separate raid the same day. The special counsel team said it was raiding the residence and office of Rep. Kim, and the former first lady's brother Kim Jin-woo and her mother Choi Eun-soon over allegations surrounding a housing project led by Choi's family company ESI and D in Yangpyeong.
ESI and D, which built an apartment complex in Yangpyeong from 2011 to 2016, reportedly did not pay any development fees and allegedly received other preferential treatment. Rep. Kim served as the county governor at the time of the project. The case was previously handled by the police, which referred Kim's brother and four other ESI and D officials to the prosecution in 2023 on charges of forging documents, but did not charge Choi or the former first lady.