The Supreme Court has upheld the convictions of nine people involved in the Deutsch Motors stock price manipulation case that led to accusations of corruption against first lady Kim Keon-hee.

The court said Thursday that there was “no mistake” in the judgment delivered by the appellate court, which found the former head of Deutsch Motors, Kwon Oh-soo, and all the others guilty of stock manipulation in violation of the Capital Markets Act. 

They were indicted in October 2021 on charges of using accounts registered under false names to systematically rig Deutsch Motors shares in a fraudulent manner between 2009 and 2012.

Seven of the nine defendants were initially convicted in February 2023, but an appeals trial resulted in convictions for all nine in September last year.

Kwon, identified as the main culprit in the case, was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for four years, and fined 500 million won, or about 340-thousand U.S. dollars.

The case drew widespread attention amid allegations that President Yoon Seok Yeol’s wife and mother-in-law were involved in the illicit trading.

But the prosecution chose not to prosecute the first lady or her mother in October last year, saying there was no clear evidence they were aware of the stock manipulation scheme when they entrusted the management of their accounts to Kwon and other financial managers.