The president’s mother-in-law was arrested on charges of personal corruption. It is the first time in constitutional history that the mother-in-law of an incumbent president is arrested in court.
Choi Eun-soon (76), the mother-in-law of President Yoon Seok-yeol, who was accused of forgery of bank account balance certificates (forgery of private documents, etc.) in the process of buying real estate under a borrowed name, was sentenced to one year in prison in an appeals trial and was put under court custody.
At 4:40 pm on the 21st, the 3rd Criminal Division of the Uijeongbu District Court (Judge Lee Seong-gyun) dismissed the appeal and sentenced Choi at the appeal trial. The judge said, “Despite the difficulty in denying involvement in (forgery), the defendant denied the crime up to the appeal trial.”
Shortly after her court detention verdict, Ms. Choi, who sat down in court shouting, “She’s going to die here,” was lifted off with her limbs set on fire by four female police officers. She was subsequently picked up by a convoy that was outside her 15 minutes later.
In December 2021, the court of first trial also sentenced Choi to one year in prison, but she was not arrested in court.
The appeal hearing was originally scheduled for May 12. However, as the sentencing was postponed twice afterwards, there were rumors that a different judgment was coming out from the first trial, but it was not overturned in the end.
[Court Situation] “I’m under court arrest!” Scream and sit down… Grab the limbs of 4 female police officers and lift them off
Right after the sentencing in court that day, Mr. Choi, as if shocked, repeated the words, “I don’t understand what you are saying.” The judge said, “If you have one last thing to say, do it.” However, Mr. Choi said several times, “I wonder what happened…” and asked the judge to “say it again.” At the same time, Mr. Choi shouted, “They’re putting me under court arrest!”
“It’s really unfair. I’m embarrassed right now and I couldn’t understand it well… As the judge said, I had a bad mind and how did I aim for the difference… I swear in front of God… I want to take medicine and commit suicide.”
In the end, Mr. Choi screamed and collapsed from his seat, and four female police officers grabbed each limb and lifted it up. Until the moment Choi left the courtroom, he shouted, “This is absolutely not possible, stay still, I will die here.”
Mr. Choi is accused of forging the balance certificate as if a total of 34.9555 billion won was deposited in a savings bank on four occasions from April 1 to October 11, 2013, in the process of purchasing land in Dochon-dong, Jungwon-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do. In addition, she is also accused of colluding with her partner, Mr. Ahn, to file a lawsuit for the return of the down payment on Dochon-dong land on August 7, 2013, and submit a forged balance certificate of about 10 billion won to the court.
[Reason for sentencing] Judge Lee Seong-gyun, who scolded the judge “The quality of the crime is very bad” and
sentenced Mr. Choi to court detention, revealed the reason for the sentence and emphasized, “Mr. Choi’s crime is very bad.”
“The balance certificate is an official document with high public confidence안전놀이터. However, the defendant (Choi Eun-soon) forged it four times, and the amount of deposit is enormous. One of the forged certificates was submitted as evidence for the purpose of influencing civil proceedings. The title trust was realized to make huge real estate profits. Overall, the crime is very bad when considering the scale, number of crimes, and methods.”
At the same time, the judge explained the reasons for not accepting the defendant’s appeal one by one. Regarding the event of falsified private documents that Choi raised an objection to, the judge pointed out, “The balance certificate (submitted to the court) was submitted as evidence in a civil lawsuit along with a fact confirmation written in the name of the defendant on August 5, 2013.”
Regarding the violation of the Real Estate Real Name Act, the judge said, “It is recognized that he committed a title trust, such as seeking a title trustee in collusion with (partner) Amugae Ahn, aiming for the difference in resale.” During the appeal trial, Mr. Choi’s side consistently claimed that he had been deceived by Mr. Ahn’s lies, and appealed to the court for leniency, but it did not work.
Regarding the claim of the sentencing party, the judge said, “While the defendant (Choi Eun-soon) led and realized huge profits, the related individuals and companies were used according to the defendant’s will.”
The judge then explained the reason for the court detention in detail, saying, “It cannot be admitted that the sentence in the original trial was outside the proper and reasonable range.” “Even though it is difficult to deny the defendant’s involvement, the defendant is denying the crime until the appeal trial. The attitude of blaming all the blame on the partner was also not good. There is a risk of flight,” he explained in detail.
At 5:40 pm on the same day, Mr. Choi was loaded into an emergency convoy prepared by the court and escorted to the detention center.
For the first time in constitutional history, the incumbent president’s mother-in-law is arrested in court… The presidential office “Not subject to comment” It is
the first time in constitutional history that the mother-in-law of an incumbent president is arrested on charges of personal corruption. Although it was a crime before being elected president, the crime occurred from April to October 2013, after President Yoon Seok-yeol and First Lady Kim Gun-hee got married (March 2012), so Ms. Choi was the ‘mother-in-law of an incumbent prosecutor’s office’. At that time, President Yoon was making a name for himself as the head of the Yeoju District Office of the Suwon District Prosecutor’s Office and the head of the special investigation team for the National Intelligence Service’s public opinion manipulation case.
This is not the first time Mr. Choi has been arrested in court. Mr. Choi, who was on trial for illegal receipt of medical care benefits, was arrested in court in the first trial in July 2021. However, at the time, President Yoon had just entered politics, not as an incumbent president. Choi, who was released on bail two months later in September 2021, was overturned in the second trial and acquitted, and was finally confirmed by the Supreme Court.
However, as Mr. Choi was arrested in the court of second trial in another case, President Yoon Seok-yeol was put in a difficult situation. This time, it is all the more so because she is the mother-in-law of the incumbent president and, as the appeals court pointed out, the crime of counterfeiting bank balance certificates is a very bad crime. In June 2021, immediately after declaring his candidacy for the presidential election, President Yoon said, “Even though my mother-in-law has been scammed, I have never avoided anyone for 10 won.” In addition, at the Kwanhun Club discussion in December of that year, he openly claimed that “(mother-in-law Choi) was basically scammed by the other party for about 5 billion won.”
Immediately after Choi’s court arrest, the Yongsan Presidential Office made a brief statement, saying, “The Judiciary’s ruling is not subject to mention by the Presidential Office.”