Is first lady Kim Gun Hee a felon sentenced to life imprisonment for stock price manipulation, false background, plagiarism of her academic theses, and fraud? No, that's not true: There is no trace of Kim, President Yoon Suk Yeol's wife, being a convicted felon, and she has not been sentenced to a life sentence in prison.
The claim appeared in a TikTok video (archived here) published by @bagu236 on March 1, 2024. The caption in Korean reads, as translated to English by Lead Stories staff:
Today is March 1st, Independence Movement Day. For the remaining number of pro-Japanese traitors. Pro-Japanese blood. Drive out all their descendants.
Julie, a felon sentenced to life imprisonment.
Crime: stock price manipulation, false transaction of bonds through a third party, falsified career resume, history of bribery, plagiarizing thesis, fraud, etc.
Han Dong Hoon, what are you doing? Conduct a search warrant for the Taiwanese broadcast.
The First Lady's exaggerated career history is all fake.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Mar 4 16:50:19 2024 UTC)
In the TikTok, the first lady's face is artificially placed on a picture of an individual in a prisoner uniform, with handcuffs. The name "Julie" in the TikTok refers to allegations (archived here) circulating since 2021 (archived here) that Kim was going by the name of Julie and working at an entertainment bar in the past, denied by the first lady. A Newsverse article (archived here) quoted an exclusive interview in which Kim contested the allegations.
Although Kim was suspected of manipulating Deutsche Motors stock prices between 2009 and 2012 (archived here), prosecutors have not been investigating Kim directly. At the first trial, six out of nine people were found guilty of stock price manipulation (archived here), but the first lady was not one of them. An appeal trial has been postponed until after the parliamentary elections, in April 2024 (archived here).
The controversy over the first lady's career history (archived here) exploded in 2022, and Kim ultimately held a press conference (archived here) admitting to having inflated certain aspects of her work experience when applying for an adjunct professor position at several universities. In an exclusive interview with YTN (archived here) on December 14, 2021, the first lady admitted to falsifying certain parts of her resume. Despite Kim's confession to partly exaggerating her career background, the police determined the first lady did not commit fraud nor obstruction of business (archived here), and no charge was pressed against her.
The TikTok's reference to "Julie's history of bribery" stems from the luxury bag controversy from November 2023 (archived here) involving the first lady who has been criticized for allegedly accepting a luxury Dior bag worth three million won (over 2,000 USD) as a gift from a Korean American pastor. There is currently no ongoing investigation on the case, and during a Lunar New Year's exclusive interview with KBS (archived here) aired on February 7, 2024, President Yoon dismissed the controversy as a "political operation."
Also, on July 6, 2021 (archived here), more allegations were raised against the first lady for having plagiarized multiple theses during her doctoral studies. Nothing was officially confirmed, and Sisa Journal (archived here) reported on October 11, 2023, that vital witnesses failed to appear at the National Assembly Inspection.
The main opposition Democratic Party proposed a "Kim Gun Hee Special Prosecutor Act" to investigate allegations of Kim having manipulated Deutsche Motors stock prices, but the bill was rejected on February 29, 2024 (archived here). The Democratic Party plans to further pursue the matter, proposing the bill again at the 22nd National Assembly, which will be formed after the elections in April 2024. Currently, there is no official investigation on Kim over the Dior bag controversy, but the Democratic Party is planning to ask that Kim be investigated also for those allegations.
A Google search (archived here) conducted by Lead Stories staff on March 8, 2024, using the following keywords 'Kim Gun Hee' and 'felon' did not return any credible reports of Kim having been sentenced to life imprisonment, although multiple results showed protests against the lack of investigation into the various controversies involving Kim.
