Shin Jong-oh, a senior judge (55, the 27th class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute) who presided over the appeal trial of former first lady Kim Keon Hee's Deutsch Motors stock manipulation case, was found dead.
Police and fire authorities received a report around midnight on Thursday and, after being dispatched, discovered Shin in a flower bed near the Seoul Court Complex around 1 a.m. He was transported to a hospital.
No signs of foul play were identified, and a suicide note was reportedly found at the scene. The note contained an apology but did not reference Kim's second-trial ruling, according to sources. Police are investigating the precise cause of death, including the possibility of a fall.
Previously, on Nov. 28, the Seoul High Court's Criminal Division 15-2, which included Shin, sentenced Kim to four years in prison and a fine of 50 million won. Kim had been indicted on charges of violating the Capital Markets Act, violating the Political Funds Act, and illegal solicitation brokerage under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes. The court also ordered the confiscation of a Graff necklace worth 62.2 million won and the collection of 20.94 million won.
The appellate court overturned the lower court's acquittal on the Deutsch Motors stock manipulation charge and handed down a partial guilty verdict. The first-trial court had sentenced Kim to one year and eight months in prison, ruling that it was difficult to conclude she had manipulated Deutsch Motors' stock price. The appellate sentence, however, still fell short of the 15-year prison term sought by the Kim Keon Hee special prosecutor team (led by Special Prosecutor Min Joong-ki).
Shin and the other judges ruled that Kim had participated in stock manipulation by handing Black Pearl Invest an account containing 2 billion won between October and November 2010 to trade Deutsch Motors shares, during which 180,000 Deutsch Motors shares were sold. The court also found her guilty of receiving money and goods from the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (the Unification Church) between April and July 2022. The charge of violating the Political Funds Act by receiving free opinion polls from Myung Tae-kyun was ruled not guilty, as in the first trial.
Shin passed the 37th bar examination in 1995 and began his career as a judge in 2001 at the Uijeongbu branch of the Seoul District Court. He served at the Ulsan District Court, the Daegu High Court, and the Cheongju bench of the Daejeon High Court before joining the Seoul High Court in February this year.
※ If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or other emotional difficulties that are hard to talk about, 24-hour professional counseling is available through the Suicide Prevention Hotline at ☎109 or the Madeulren SNS counseling service.
