Seoul: A special counsel team was questioning a key associate of former first lady Kim Keon Hee on Monday over allegations he peddled his influence to secure a suspended prison sentence for a business partner.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the team, led by special counsel Min Joong-ki, summoned Lee Jong-ho, former head of investment firm Blackpearl Invest, to its office in central Seoul. This follows a raid on Lee's home and car conducted two days prior.
Lee Jong-ho is at the center of multiple cases involving the former first lady, Kim Keon Hee, the wife of ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol. He is suspected of receiving 81 million won (US$58,000) from a business partner. In return, he allegedly used his connections to Kim to secure a suspended sentence for the partner in a stock price manipulation case involving Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealer in South Korea.
Lee himself is a key figure in the case dating back to 2009 to 2012, and he was sentenced to a suspended prison term for his involvement. The former first lady's accounts were allegedly used in the scheme, and Lee is believed to have managed those accounts.
In addition to the Deutsch Motors case, Lee is also accused of leveraging his ties to Kim to manipulate the stock prices of Sambu Construction Co. in a separate incident. He is further implicated in efforts to relieve former Marine commander Lim Seong-geun of responsibility for the 2023 death of a Marine.