A special counsel team investigating allegations surrounding former first lady Kim Keon Hee conducts a search and seizure operation of a Sambu Construction Co. office in central Seoul on July 3, 2025. Image court. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, July 7 (Korea Bizwire) — A special counsel team said Monday it plans to summon former and incumbent executives of Sambu Construction Co., as it widens its investigation into stock price manipulation allegations involving the mid-sized builder and former first lady Kim Keon Hee.
The team — led by special counsel Min Joong-ki — said in a regular press briefing that it had questioned a Sambu Construction employee as a witness on Sunday, and was questioning an executive of the Eurasian Business Association earlier Monday.
The Eurasian Business Association, a nonprofit that offers consultations to corporations seeking to enter the Eurasian market, signed a memorandum of understanding with Sambu Construction related to reconstruction projects in Ukraine in June 2022, which sent the builder’s shares soaring.
The Sambu case centers on allegations that in May to June 2023, around a dozen former and current owners and executives of the company deceived investors into thinking it would begin overseas reconstruction projects in Ukraine in order to raise its share price, before selling their own shares to pocket profits worth tens of billions of won.
The special counsel plans to summon a former head of Sambu Construction on Wednesday and the company’s biggest shareholder for questioning on Thursday, respectively.
The special counsel team, however, said it had not arranged plans to summon Lee Jong-ho, former head of Black Pearl Invest, who has been convicted in a separate stock price manipulation case linked to the former first lady.
Authorities are expected to verify details of the case with key figures of Sambu Construction before bringing in Lee for questioning.
(Yonhap)
