Who is South Korea’s former first woman?

Two Chanel purses, a BMW dealership and a controversial church will all be at the centre of a trial confronted by South Korea’s former first woman this week.

Kim Keon Hee, the spouse of disgraced former president Yoon Suk Yeol, was arrested in August over a raft of fees including bribery, stock manipulation, and political interference – all of which she denies.

On Wednesday, less than a fortnight after her husband was sentenced to 5 years’ in jail for abusing energy and obstructing justice in relation to his failed martial law bid, Kim will obtain the verdict in the first of three instances against her.

Prosecutors say Kim, 52, made more than 800 million won ($552,570; £404,050) by taking part in a price-rigging scheme involving the shares of Deutsch Motors, a BMW vendor in South Korea, between October 2010 and December 2012.

She is also accused of accepting luxurious luggage, a diamond necklace and other presents value up to 80m won as bribes from the controversial Unification Church in exchange for business favours, and receiving 58 free opinion polls, value 270 million Korean won, from political broker Myung Tae-kyun before the 2022 presidential election.

Wednesday’s trial, which will be broadcast stay from the court, marks the first time in historical past that a presidential partner has been indicted while detained.

But it is far from the first time Kim herself has been embroiled in controversy.

Before she was South Korea’s first woman, Kim Keon Hee – born Kim Myeong-sin – was a businesswoman and artwork lover.

She graduated with an artwork schooling degree from Sookmyung Women’s University in 1999, but would later face repeated allegations of plagiarism over her time as a pupil there – main the college to annul her degree in 2025 after its analysis ethics panel discovered her thesis was compromised.

She has never commented on these allegations publicly.

In 2009, she based artwork exhibition company Covana Contents, for which she is still CEO and president – but in 2019 South Korean media reported that she had allegedly evaded paying taxes and obtained kickbacks for internet hosting artwork exhibitions.

Kim, who has stood down from her function, was cleared of these fees in 2023, but the particular counsel is presently re-examining the case.

Then, forward of the 2022 presidential election which her husband in the end won, allegations emerged that Kim had submitted functions to universities and corporations containing false {qualifications} and awards, sparking a scandal over doubtlessly fabricated credentials.

In response to these allegations, which some opposition members had sought to use as a political cudgel against Yoon, Kim issued a public apology for what she described as “exaggerations” on her resume.

She further pledged that if her husband turned president she would “focus solely on my role as his wife”.

It is her conduct while in that function, however, that has drawn some of the fiercest backlash.

In late-2023, spy digicam footage surfaced exhibiting Kim receiving a luxurious purse from an particular person in a Seoul workplace in September 2022.

The footage was reported to have been secretly filmed by the pastor Choi Jae-young utilizing a digicam embedded in his watch – and its publication intensified public scrutiny on both Kim and Yoon.

It appeared to show Mr Choi strolling to a store to buy the greyish-blue calfskin bag, with a receipt placing its value at 3m won ($2,200; £1,800). Mr Choi then visits Covana Contents, a company in Seoul owned by the first woman, where Ms Kim then asks the pastor: “Why do you keep bringing me these things?”

South Korean law makes it unlawful for public officers and their spouses to obtain presents value more than 1m won in one go, or a complete of 3m won within a fiscal 12 months.

And while the video did not explicitly show Ms Kim accepting the reward, the Korea Herald reported at the time that the presidential workplace confirmed receipt of the bag and said that it was “being managed and stored as a property of the government”.

The presidential workplace did not immediately reply to the protection, further fuelling the controversy, as civic teams filed complaints with the prosecution citing potential violations of the Anti-Graft Act.

This incident is one of 16 allegations appeared into by the particular counsel group, 12 of which were handed to police for further investigation.

Wednesday’s verdict, however, will focus on Kim allegedly accepting other bribes from the Unification Church, as properly as her alleged involvement in Deutsch Motors stock manipulation and alleged election meddling.

Kim has denied the fees – although she did admit to receiving Chanel luggage, which she says she later returned without utilizing.

Prosecutors last month called for a 15-year prison time period and a fantastic of 2 billion won, saying she had “stood above the law” and colluded with the Unification Church to undermine the “constitutionally mandated separation of religion and state”.

While Kim’s string of scandals solid a shadow over her husband’s presidential profession, it was Yoon himself who in the end sealed his own destiny as one of South Korea’s most disgraced former leaders.

On 16 January, Yoon was discovered guilty of abuse of energy, falsifying paperwork and obstructing justice when he tried and failed to impose martial law in the nation in 2024. He has also been sentenced to 5 years in jail.

It was the first of the verdicts in 4 trials linked to Yoon’s shock martial law decree. Although short-lived, the transfer triggered nationwide turmoil, sparking protests as MPs rushed to the national meeting to overturn Yoon’s determination.

Yoon’s actions “plunged the country into political crisis”, a choose said while delivering the verdict, noting that Yoon had “consistently shown no remorse”.

It was during a year-long probe into Yoon’s failed martial law attempt that particular prosecutors began investigating many of the allegations against Kim.

Together, the once-powerful-couple make a historic pair: while South Korea has a historical past of former presidents being indicted and imprisoned, Yoon and Kim mark the first time both a former president and former first woman have been jailed.