South Korea: Special counsel team raids construction company in probe into ex-first lady

Seoul, July 3 A special counsel team launched a raid on a mid-sized builder on Thursday as part of its investigation into stock price manipulation allegations involving former first lady Kim Keon Hee.

The team -- led by special counsel Min Joong-ki -- said in a notice to the press that the search and seizure at Sambu Construction Co. began in the morning.

It is the first raid by the special counsel team since Min's appointment last month and Wednesday's launch of its investigation into various corruption allegations involving Kim, former President Yoon Suk Yeol's wife.

She is suspected of involvement in manipulating the stock prices of Sambu Construction, in addition to allegedly accepting a luxury handbag and meddling in election nominations, along with other things.

The Sambu case is less known than the others, however, as it was transferred to the special counsel before the prosecution dug deep, reported Yonhap news agency.

Initially, it involved suspicions that in May to June 2023, around a dozen former and current owners and executives of the company deceived investors into thinking it would begin overseas reconstruction projects in order to raise its share prices and then sold their own shares to pocket profits worth tens of billions of won.

But the share price increase coincided with Yoon and Kim's visit to Ukraine, where the then-President met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss reconstruction projects in the war-torn nation.

The timing raised questions about whether the former first lady could have shared information with Lee Jong-ho, a former head of Black Pearl Invest who has been convicted in a separate stock price manipulation case linked to her, and prompted him to initiate large transactions of Sambu shares.

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