How a love of luxury brought down South Korea’s former first lady

By Jessie Yeung, Gawon Bae, CNN

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) — It all started with a designer handbag. Then two, then a luxury necklace, and more.

Now, it’s ending in jail time for South Korea’s former first lady.

Kim Keon Hee, the wife of disgraced (and also jailed) former President Yoon Suk Yeol, was sentenced to one year and eight months in prison on Wednesday for bribery –– in just one of three criminal trials she is facing. Both prosecutors and Kim’s team can appeal the ruling.

The court found Kim guilty of accepting bribes from the controversial religious sect Unification Church, including a Chanel bag and a Graff diamond necklace. But it found her not guilty of stock manipulation and conspiring with her husband to receive free public opinion polls, citing lack of sufficient evidence and expired statute of limitations – and also cleared her for receiving a second Chanel bag.

Prosecutors had estimated that the stocks, bribes and polls altogether were worth 1.15 billion Korean won (about $813,000).

Kim “misused her status as a means of pursuing profit … The defendant was unable to refuse the expensive luxury items provided in connection with special favor, and was thirsty to receive and decorate herself with them,” said Seoul District Court Judge Woo In-seong in the ruling.

However, Woo added, Kim had not asked for the gifts, did not relay any requests from the church to her husband, and is now “self-reflecting” on her actions.

It’s the latest blow to the former first couple, both of whom have repeatedly denied wrongdoing, though Kim has admitted receiving the Chanel bags from the Unification Church.

Yoon is on trial for insurrection over his brief declaration of martial law in 2024, as well as a number of other allegations. But his wife has been embroiled in scandal for far longer –– with the stock manipulation accusations related to a car dealership going back more than a decade.

She was arrested last August by a special counsel, with prosecutors requesting 15 years in prison for the various crimes the court ruled on Wednesday.

“Kim Keon Hee used her status as president’s spouse to easily receive money and expensive goods, and widely intervened in various personnel appointments and nominations,” said Min Joong-ki, who led the special counsel team, on December 29 after concluding its 180-day investigation.

The leader of the Unification Church, also known as the Moonies, which began in South Korea and has spread worldwide, is also on trial over the bribes.

Long list of scandals

From the start, Kim wasn’t your typical first lady.

She had worked in the art industry, having founded her own exhibition agency, when she married Yoon in 2012. At the time, he was still a prosecutor and had yet to enter politics.

Kim maintained a high profile as first lady, often wearing stylish outfits on overseas presidential trips that won her both praise and criticism back home. That set her apart from other South Korean first ladies – who traditionally were viewed as humble, behind-the-scenes figures.

But suspicions about her conduct had mounted even during Yoon’s run for office.

In 2021, Kim apologized for inflating her resume, vowing to “remain focused on my role as a wife” if her husband won the following year’s election.

She also faced persistent allegations of academic plagiarism, which resulted in Sookmyung Women’s University revoking her master’s degree last summer. Kookmin University, where she earned a PhD, revoked her doctoral degree following the Sookmyung decision, despite having cleared her of misconduct during an earlier probe.

For years, allegations have swirled that Kim manipulated stocks between 2010 and 2012 related to Korean BMW dealership Deutsch Motors, earning unfair profits. It didn’t help optics when Yoon, as president, vetoed a bill that pushed for a special investigation into his wife.

But the straw that broke the camel’s back was a $2,200 Christian Dior bag (unrelated to the Chanel bags she was sentenced over on Wednesday.)

In late 2023, a left-leaning YouTube channel released a secretly filmed video in which a Korean-American pastor presented Kim with a calfskin handbag as a gift. Their exchange, which took place in 2022 after Yoon’s election, was recorded on a covert camera in the pastor’s wristwatch.

During the exchange, Kim is heard saying: “Why do you keep bringing these? Please, you don’t need to do this.” The footage does not show her taking the handbag – but she also does not appear to reject it, and a Dior shopping bag is seen placed on a coffee table as they talk.

South Korea’s anti-graft law bans public officials and their spouses from receiving gifts valued at more than $750 in connection with their public duties.

The scandal exploded, with support for Yoon dropping to new lows. Kim all but disappeared from public view, until the president declared martial law late one Tuesday night in December 2023, launching the nation – and the couple – into a far bigger crisis.

Presidential downfall

Legislators swiftly overturned the president’s martial law decree after fighting their way past armed soldiers into parliament.

Yoon was impeached and removed from office, and special investigations soon began into him, his wife, and his deputies, including his prime minister, who was sentenced last week to 23 years in prison.

Earlier this month, Yoon was sentenced to five years for defying attempts to detain him and for denying Cabinet members the chance to debate his martial law decree. More and longer sentences may follow; he still faces eight criminal trials on other charges, including rebellion.

Throughout his appearances in court and trial hearings, Yoon has repeatedly resisted investigators’ attempts to question him about his wife.

A South Korean president ending up in jail is hardly unusual. Yoon himself, as a prosecutor, helped bring down former President Park Geun-hye, who was imprisoned for corruption and abuse of power.

This, however, is the first time a former presidential couple has been jailed at the same time.

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CNN’s Nectar Gan and Yoonjung Seo contributed reporting.