Lee Jun-su, who is accused of playing a key role in the Deutsche Motors stock manipulation scheme, is escorted to the special counsel team investigating former first lady Kim Keon Hee in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Nov. 20, 2025.YONHAP
The Supreme Court has upheld a suspended prison sentence and fine for Lee Jun-su, who was convicted as an accomplice in the Deutsche Motors stock manipulation scheme.
The top court declined to reverse a lower court ruling sentencing Lee to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years, and a fine of 40 million won ($28,300) for violating the Capital Markets Act on Thursday.
Lee was detained and indicted in December of last year. He was accused of conspiring with former Deutsche Motors Chair Kwon Oh-soo and former head of Black Pearl Investment Lee Jong-ho to manipulate the company’s share price between October 2010 and December 2012. Lee was accused of earning 13 million won in illicit profits.
The special counsel team also concluded that former first lady Kim Keon Hee conspired with those involved in the stock manipulation scheme, including Lee Jun-su, and made approximately 810 million won in profits between October 2010 and December 2012.
Lee Jun-su has also been identified as the person who introduced the former first lady to Jeon Seong-bae, a shaman known as Geon Jin.
Lee Jun-su fled during a search conducted by the special counsel team in October 2025 but was caught about a month later in Chungju, North Chungcheong. He was detained and indicted in December of last year.
In its initial ruling, the court found that Lee Jun-su had conspired with Kwon and others in the second phase of the Deutsche Motors stock manipulation scheme and sentenced Lee Jun-su to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years, and a fine of 40 million won.
Kim Keon Hee, the wife of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, attends a trial at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Sept. 24, 2025. She had been indicted and detained on charges including stock manipulation involving Deutsche Motors, political interference and taking bribes connected to the Unification Church.JOINT PRESS CORPS
The appellate court upheld the ruling. It found that Lee Jun-su had actively participated in the scheme by using accounts under other people’s names to personally place orders intended to manipulate the stock price. The court noted that he placed such orders 68 times.
Lee Jun-su appealed, but the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal. It found no legal error in the lower court’s conclusions regarding his liability as a co-principal, the extent of his criminal liability after withdrawing from the conspiracy or the suspension of the statute of limitations.
Former first lady Kim, who was indicted on charges related to the Deutsche Motors stock manipulation scheme, was originally acquitted. The court found that the statute of limitations had expired for some of the allegations and that prosecutors had failed to establish that she conspired with those behind the scheme on others.
Kwon Oh-soo, the former chairman of Deutsch Motors, attends a court hearing at the Seoul High Court in southern Seoul on Sept. 12, 2024.NEWS1
In an appeal filed by the special investigation team — a legal right of the prosecution under Korean law — an appellate court overturned part of that ruling after finding that Kim had participated in some of the stock manipulation. She was also convicted on additional charges involving the receipt of valuables from the Unification Church.
Kim was consequently sentenced to four years in prison, up from the one year and eight months she originally received.
The Supreme Court had been scheduled to rule on Kim’s case on July 16 before postponing the decision to July 24. The ruling was postponed again a day before the rescheduled date after the case was referred to the court’s full bench.
BY JEONG JAE-HONG [lee.jiwon10@joongang.co.kr]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
