Seoul, Nov 2 (NationPress) A special counsel team has presented circumstances indicating that Kim Keon Hee, the spouse of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, might have been implicated in several personnel requests made to the presidential office during the previous administration.

On Wednesday, the special counsel, Min Joong-ki, revealed evidence showing that a shaman linked to Kim's bribery case had solicited the appointment of eight individuals to presidential office positions through Kim, shortly following the 2022 presidential elections.

Of those eight, two were confirmed to have worked in the presidential office, while another was appointed as a Consul General in September of that year, according to Yonhap News Agency.

Investigators suspect that Kim received the list of candidates and may have exerted influence in the hiring process.

In August, Min's team indicted Kim, placing her in physical detention on charges of breaching the Capital Market Act, the Political Funds Act, and laws against accepting bribes for mediation, marking her as the first spouse of a former President to face trial under custody.

She faces allegations of conspiring with a former head of Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealership in South Korea, along with an associate, to manipulate the company’s stock price, which resulted in illegal gains of 810 million won ($582,000) between 2010 and 2012.

Furthermore, she is accused of accepting free opinion polls valued at 270 million won alongside her husband from a self-styled power broker prior to the 2022 presidential election, in return for ensuring the nomination of former People Power Party Rep. Kim Young-sun for a parliamentary by-election later that year.

Additionally, she is suspected of receiving luxury gifts worth 80 million won from the Unification Church through a shaman in exchange for business favors in 2022.

Before her indictment, officials from Seohee Construction provided a Van Cleef & Arpels necklace and admitted gifting it to Kim shortly after Yoon's election in March 2022, in pursuit of a government position for the company chairman's son-in-law.

The son-in-law, a former prosecutor, was appointed as the chief of staff for then Prime Minister Han Duck-soo three months later.

Despite the mounting evidence, legal experts suggest that holding her accountable may prove challenging, given that she did not occupy any public office nor held authority over personnel decisions.

According to the law, bribery charges are typically applicable to individuals in public office who grant benefits in exchange for bribes.

In October of the previous year, prosecutors dismissed charges against Kim regarding her acceptance of a luxury handbag from a Korean American pastor in 2022, citing the country’s anti-graft law, which lacks provisions for penalizing the spouses of public officials.