SEOUL– The office of President Yoon Suk Yeol again rejected stock manipulation allegations involving first lady Kim Keon Hee on Tuesday as the main opposition party stepped up its calls for a special prosecutor investigation.
The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) has vowed to push for a special probe into the first lady after a court last week acquitted financiers in the stock manipulation scheme involving Deutsch Motors Inc., a BMW car dealer in South Korea.
The DP has long accused Kim of playing the role of a financier by entrusting her stock account to a key manipulator.
While Kim was not indicted in the case, the court acquitted two people accused of playing the role of financiers in the scheme. The court also dismissed charges brought against the key manipulator for dealings until October 2010, citing the expiration of the statute of limitations.
The presidential office said the ruling shows the first lady is innocent.
The DP, however, has maintained the first lady is also suspected of profiting through dealings of Deutsch Motors stocks between October 2010 and January 2011, a period for which the court did not fully acknowledge the expiration of the statute of limitations.
“Just because the stock account was used, it cannot be regarded as taking part in stock price manipulation,” the presidential office said in a statement to the press.
“In the course of the investigation and trial, dozens of people were subject to intense investigation, but not a single person testified to communicating or conspiring with first lady Kim Keon Hee over stock price manipulation,” it said.
The presidential office especially pointed to the part of the ruling that acquitted a major investor despite records that he traded in the stocks at a much larger scale and with greater frequency than the first lady.
“By the same logic, there is no way three days of purchases can be recognized as involvement in stock price manipulation,” it said, referring to the first lady’s stock purchases.
According to the presidential office’s own analysis, the investor in question traded 455 times in Deutsch Motors shares between October 2010 and August 2012, but was found innocent by the court.
Source: Yonhap News Agency