A special counsel team has raided a contractor as part of its investigation into former first lady Kim Keon-hee.

The team, led by special counsel Min Joong-ki, said in a notice to reporters on Monday that it began a search and seizure operation at Seohee Construction in Seocho District in southern Seoul.

The raid comes after the team obtained information that a company official had purchased a Van Cleef & Arpels diamond necklace valued at some 60 million won, or roughly 43-thousand U.S. dollars.

The team, which is believed to have specified charges of bribery in the search and seizure warrant, is looking into suspicions that the contractor gifted the necklace to Kim in 2022 to curry favor with her immediately after her husband won the presidential election.

Kim was photographed wearing a similar necklace during the NATO summit in 2022. 

After the summit, Park Seong-geun, the son-in-law of Seohee Construction Chairman Lee Bong-gwan, was appointed chief of staff to then-Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.

Kim’s necklace was later found to be counterfeit, but the team suspects she replaced the real necklace with the fake.

The former first lady later claimed that she had bought the knock-off in Hong Kong as a gift for her mother.