Supreme Court to Rule on July 16 in Kim Geonhee 'Stock Manipulation and Unification Church Bribery' Case

Supreme Court to Rule on Kweon Seongdong's "Unification Church Bribery" Case

The Supreme Court is set to deliver its verdict on July 16 regarding Mrs. Geonhee Kim's case involving allegations of stock price manipulation of Deutsche Motors and the acceptance of valuables from the Unification Church. On the same day, the Supreme Court will also hand down its ruling on Assemblyman Kweon Seongdong of the People Power Party, who stands trial for allegedly receiving illegal political funds from the Unification Church.

Mrs. Geonhee Kim. Photo by Yonhap News

According to the legal community on July 10, the Supreme Court's Second Division has scheduled the sentencing for the appeals in Mrs. Kim's case—which involves violations of the Capital Markets Act, the Political Funds Act, and aggravated bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes—as well as Assemblyman Kweon's case, which concerns violations of the Political Funds Act. The ruling will be delivered at 10:15 a.m. on July 16. The presiding justices are Park Youngjae (Judicial Research and Training Institute, Class 22) and Eom Sangpil (Class 23), respectively.

Mrs. Kim is accused of participating in the Deutsche Motors stock price manipulation scheme from October 2010 to December 2012, allegedly obtaining unfair gains of approximately 810 million won. She also faces charges of conspiring with former President Yoon Suk-yeol from June 2021 to March 2022 to receive polling data valued at about 270 million won from Tae-kyun Myung. Additionally, she is charged with receiving, in 2022, a necklace worth about 62 million won and two handbags valued at a total of 20 million won from former Unification Church World Headquarters chief Yoon Youngho, in exchange for a request to support the religious group.

In the previous trial, Mrs. Kim was sentenced to four years in prison and fined 50 million won. The court also ordered the forfeiture of a necklace worth 62.2 million won and the collection of 20.94 million won in additional criminal proceeds.

Assemblyman Kweon was indicted on charges of receiving 100 million won from former Unification Church World Headquarters chief Yoon on January 5, 2022, ahead of the 20th presidential election, in return for lobbying for support for the Unification Church under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. The lower court found him guilty, sentencing him to two years in prison and ordering the collection of 100 million won. If this ruling is upheld, Assemblyman Kweon will lose his parliamentary seat in accordance with the National Assembly Act and the Public Official Election Act.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.